2-3: Self-assembly strategies to functional nanoparticle composites


TUM: Job Boekhoven, Bernhard Rieger, Marc Tornow
UofA: Jonathan Veinot, Karthik Shankar
Doctorial Candidates: Raphael Grötsch, Max Speckbacher


Significant efforts in the microelectronics industry are underway to expand the current, basically 2D circuitry into the 3rd dimension. Here, one promising approach is the controlled self-assembly of nanoparticles into higher-order, three-dimensional aggregates. We investigate such assembly starting from various oxide, metal and semiconductor nanoparticles of different shape, size and specific surface functionalization. One major focus is the controlled, massively parallel bottom-up preparation of basic electronic device structures. The formed heterogeneous aggregates are thoroughly characterized with respect to their structural properties and electronic function. Another part of the consortium focuses at coupling these aggregation and disaggregation kinetics to chemical reaction networks, thus creating electronic circuits with a lifetime dictated by chemical reaction rates. With that, we aim at circuits with lifetime tunable from minutes to weeks.