Virus‐Templated Synthesis of ZnO Nanostructures and Formation of Field‐Effect Transistors

Abstract

The search for novel methods for the synthesis of nanostructured materials is an important step towards the miniaturization of multifunctional devices, which requires careful and appropriate integration of various materials into a single unit. However, most of the conventional synthesis methods for multicomponent systems involve harsh reaction conditions and thereby introduce limitations in the choice of materials to be combined. For instance, in ceramic synthesis methods, extreme heating and/or pressure are often used, which may be inapplicable to certain components of a device structure. Further factors critical to the miniaturization are the size of the obtained powder particles and their tendency to agglomerate. Hence, the integration of different materials is still a challenging goal and can hardly be achieved by conventional processing. Biomineralization is a process used by organisms to generate composite materials composed of organic and inorganic phases, which often exhibit exceptional properties. [ 1 ] Organic molecules, such as peptides, proteins, or polysaccharides, guide the crystal growth at ambient conditions that eventually determine the morphology and the functional properties of the materials. [ 2 ] The integration of biomolecules as templates or structure-directing agents, on the other hand, offers the opportunity to explore alternative low-temperature methods in the synthesis of bioinorganic hybrid materials with novel tailored functionalities. [ 3 , 4 ] For some applications, however, the adaptation of bionic mineralization approaches to the synthesis of artifi cial composite materials is not possible, since no interactions between the inorganic phase