Surface Functionalization in the Nanoscale Domain
This chapter discusses the modification of surfaces using thin layers of organic molecules to control or modify the properties of the surface. Methods for placing monomolecular adlayer films on various surfaces are outlined, as are methods that result in
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Surface Functionalization in the Nanoscale Domain Richard L. McCreery and Adam Johan Bergren
Abstract
This chapter discusses the modification of surfaces using thin layers of organic molecules to control or modify the properties of the surface. Methods for placing monomolecular adlayer films on various surfaces are outlined, as are methods that result in nanoscopic multilayered films. First, the general properties of surfaces are discussed in the context of how a thin organic film can be used to change their properties and behaviour. Then, an overview of methods for coating various surfaces with nanoscopic organic films (i.e., less than 10 nm thick) is given. Finally, methods for generating thicker films are discussed. Throughout this chapter, illustrative examples are given to show the structure of the film in question or to show how the properties of the modified surface can be dictated by the choice of the specific chemical composition of the adlayer.
7.1
Introduction and Scope
It is a well known consequence of geometry that the surface/volume ratio of an object increases as the object becomes smaller. The progression of many aspects of science and technology into the nanoscale realm therefore inherently results in the greater importance of surfaces in determining the behaviour of nanoscale devices and phenomena. The relentless increase in device density in the microelectronics industry provides a very prominent example of the relative importance of surfaces to device fabrication and performance, as the feature size is currently a few tens of
R.L. McCreery (*) Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada e-mail: [email protected] A.J. Bergren National Institute for Nanotechnology (National Research Council Canada), Edmonton, AB, Canada M. Stepanova and S. Dew (eds.), Nanofabrication, DOI 10.1007/978-3-7091-0424-8_7, # Springer-Verlag/Wien 2012
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nanometers. If the “surface” is arbitrarily considered to encompass the typical escape depth of an excited electron (1–10 nm), then the progression of microelectronic feature sizes from 65 to 32 nm and below is rapidly approaching the point where the finished device is “all surface”. In addition to occupying a greater fraction of device volume for smaller devices, surfaces also provide the opportunity to create unusual arrangements of atoms and molecules. The bulk structure of a given material is interrupted at its surface, and it is often possible to orient and/or bond materials with quite different properties at an interface between dissimilar materials. Nanofabrication involves a wide range of surface modification procedures that are important in many different areas of nanotechnology. This chapter will emphasize mainly chemical methods for surface modification at the monolayer and nearmonolayer level (generally, we consider here films that are less than 10 nm thick), with particular attention to the interactions between the bulk substrate material and the surface modifier occurring at
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