Assembling Nanoelectronic Structures From Biomolecular Templates and
Chemically Modified Nanoparticles
J. E. Hutchison*,a, S. M. Reeda,
L. O. Browna, J. L. Moostera, L. Clarkeb
and M. N. Wybourne.c
aDepartment of Chemistry and Materials
University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 97403 bDepartment of Physics, University of Oregon,
Eugene, OR 97403 cDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College,
Hanover, New Hampshire 03755
The fabrication of nanoelectronic devices based upon Coulomb blockade is
a promising approach to increasing electronic device density and speed.
Most Coulomb blockade devices operate only at greatly reduced temperatures
and require sophisticated nanofabrication techniques; successful operation
at room-temperature will require further reduction of device size. New
methods of nanofabrication are needed to attain these small dimensions.
Molecular methods of nanofabrication involving chemical self-assembly offer
access to nanoscale structures and, importantly, offer diversity and
tunability not accessible in traditional solid-state electronic materials.
Our method of nanofabrication involves assembly of metal nanoparticles
onto biopolymeric scaffolds to form low-dimensional arrays. Biopolymers
such as polypeptides and DNA can adopt linear, rigid structures that are
useful templates for nanoparticle self-assembly. The chemical interactions
between small molecules and these biopolymers are well known and can be
exploited to target the attachment of nanoparticles to the templates in a
rational fashion. In addition, chemical and physical modification of the
biopolymer strands should provide a means of electrically contacting the
arrays and connecting strands into more complex circuits.
We have prepared small (metal core d < 2 nm),
narrow-dispersity, alkanethiol-stabilized gold nanoparticles via ligand
exchange reactions and found that thin films of these particles exhibit
Coulomb blockade at room temperature.[Brown et al. (1997), Clarke et al.
(1998)] Here we will present a new family of nanoparticles wherein we can
tune the particle's solubility, reactivity and interparticle spacing
utilizing unique mixtures of capping and bridging ligands. [Reed and
Hutchison (in preparation)] Inert, capping ligands serve to control the
particle's solubility and interparticle spacing whereas
terminally-substituted bridging ligands provide a means of attaching the
nanoparticles to biopolymer templates through covalent, electrostatic or
hydrogen bonding interactions.
Our use of such templates to organize nanoparticles into low-dimensional
arrays on surfaces and the electronic properties, such as the
current-voltage characteristics, of such arrays will be discussed. This
work was supported by NSF and ONR.
Brown, L. O.; Hutchison, J. E. (1997) J. Am. Chem. Soc., 119, pages
12384-12385. Convenient Preparation of Stable, Narrow-Dispersity, Gold
Nanocrystals by Ligand Exchange Reactions
Clarke, L.; Wybourne, M. N.; Brown, L. O.; Hutchison, J. E.; Yan, M.;
Cai, S. X.; Keana, J. F. W. (1998) Semiconductor Science and Technology,
In press. Room Temperature Coulomb-Blockade Dominated Transport in
Reed, S. M.; Hutchison, J. E. Manuscript in preparation. Synthesis of
Thiol-stabilized Easily-functionalized Water Soluble Gold Nanoparticles.