Oxide nanotemplates for self-assembling "solid" building blocks

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the fabrication of ordered arrays of metal nanoclusters using oxide templates, advancing the development of solid matter building blocks for new material engineering.

Contribution

It introduces a method to create solid-based self-assembling building blocks using oxide templates, filling a gap in current nanostructure fabrication techniques.

Findings

Ordered arrays of metal nanoclusters can be fabricated via self-assembly.

Oxide templates are versatile and can be produced by deposition or oxidation.

The approach enables new possibilities for solid matter nanostructures.

Abstract

It is widely accepted that self-assembling building blocks is one of the promising ways for engineering new materials. Recent years reveal substantial progress in fabricating colloidal particles, polymer blocks and supramolecular aggregates of organic molecules. Despite of substantial progress in molecular self-assembly there is still a lack of simple blocks made of "solid matter" (e.g. metals, oxides etc.) with well-defined crystal structure and spatial order. Here we demonstrate that ordered arrays of metal nanoclusters can be fabricated by self-assembly on a wide range of oxide templates. These nano-templates are produced either by depositing an alien oxide film or by oxidizing a metal/metal oxide substrate.