Nanonets to revolutionise electronics' performance
Washington, Sept 3 : Scientists at Boston College have created nanonets, by using
titanium and silicon in a two-dimensional network of wires that resemble flat, rectangular
netting - a finding critical to improving the performance of electronics and energy
applications.
The nanonets are a flexible webbing of nano-scale wires that multiplies surface area
critical to improving the performance of the wires in electronics and energy
applications.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Professor Dunwei Wang and his team created this new
structure, which improves material used in microelectronics and water-splitting.
With this advance in nanotechnology, the team has achieved a major breakthrough by
creating a material that is extremely thin yet maintains its complexity, a structural
design large or long enough to efficiently transfer an electrical charge.
"We wanted to create a nano structure unlike any other with a relatively large surface
area. The goal was to increase surface area and maintain the structural integrity of the
material without sacrificing surface area and thereby improving performance," said
Wang.
He said that the tests showed an improved performance in the material's ability to
conduct electricity through high quality connections of the nanonet, which suggest the
material could lend itself to applications from electronics to energy-harvesting.
Titanium disilicide (TiSi2) has been proven to absorb light across a wide range of the
solar spectrum, is easily obtained, and is inexpensive. Metal silicides are also found in
microelectronics devices.
The team said that the nanonets grew spontaneously from the bottom-up through simple
chemical reactions, unprovoked by a catalyst.
Working in 2D, Wang's team produced a web that under a microscope resembles a tree with
all branches growing in the same perpendicular direction from the trunk.
The team used titanium disilicide because of the material's superior conductivity. The
semiconductor also stores the gases produced, enabling the simple separation of hydrogen
and oxygen. So-called water splitting may play a key role in producing hydrogen for
fuel.
"We're excited to have discovered this unique structure and we are already at work to
gauge just how much the nanonet can improve the performance of a material that is already
used in electronics and clean energy applications," said Wang.
The study is reported in the international edition of the German Chemical Society
journal Angewandte Chemie.
--ANI
