Abstract
A controllable strategy to fabricate the polymeric nanowires with high throughput and low cost is developed by using the thermal nanoimprint lithography (NIL) technique and self-assembled anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template. The length of polymeric nanowires can be controlled by adjusting the duration of thermal NIL. A fill mechanism of thermoplastic intermediate polymer stamp (IPS) polymer pressed into the AAO nanopores is closely studied. The as-prepared IPS polymeric nanowire-based Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS)-active substrate exhibits a remarkable reproducibility. The effective adsorption of the R6G as probe molecule near to hotspots generated at 3D vertically aligned polymeric nanowire SERS active substrates shows extraordinary enhancement of Raman signal with an enhancement factor (EF) of 105–106. The present strategy is of great guiding significance to broaden the use of thermal NIL technique and AAO template for the fabrication of other nanomaterials, especially for the flexible and transparent polymer-based nanomaterials.
Highlights
The polymeric nanowires have attracted much attention for their potential applications in the fields of sensor, FET, ECE, Solar Cell, supercapacitor in recent y ears[1,2,3,4,5], due to their excellent flexibility, optical and electrical properties
We report a controllable strategy for fabricating arrays of polymeric nanowire structures with high throughput and low cost by using the thermal nanoimprint lithography (NIL) technique and self-assembled anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template
After a short time of thermal NIL (3 Min), the polymer cannot be pressed into the inside of the AAO pore, but on the concave surface of the AAO pore, as shown in Fig. 2a, where the regularity of the AAO surface is inherited by the surface of the polymeric film
Summary
The polymeric nanowires have attracted much attention for their potential applications in the fields of sensor, FET, ECE, Solar Cell, supercapacitor in recent y ears[1,2,3,4,5], due to their excellent flexibility, optical and electrical properties. Flexible SERS-active substrates have advantages over traditional rigid substrates in terms of flexible or wearable tags, such as sensing with non-planar g eometry[19]. Due to their excellent mechanical strain resistance, they can be customized into desired shape and s ize[20]. We report a controllable strategy for fabricating arrays of polymeric nanowire structures with high throughput and low cost by using the thermal NIL technique and self-assembled AAO template. The effective adsorption of the R6G as probe molecule near to hotspots generated at 3D vertically aligned polymeric nanowire SERS active substrates showed extraordinary enhancement of Raman signal with an EF of 105–106
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