Self-assembly of parallel aligned nanorods monolayer via thermal annealing technique

Abstract

We present a simple method to fabricate parallel aligned CdSe/CdS nanorods (NRs) by the thermal annealing technique. Different packing structures were obtained by varying the amount of organic capping molecules in the washing process. The results showed that self-assembly of NRs can be aligned parallel to the substrate along with melted organic molecules during the annealing process; a larger space among NRs induced by more melted organics prevents the formation of the multilayer structures and thereby leads to the preferential monolayer. Heating induced organic molecules melted and thereby acts as the medium for self-assembly, and the amount of organics strongly influenced the nature of the self-assembly patterns. The results may offer a way toward controllable self-assembled nanocrystal superlattices for use in functional devices.