AVS 50th International Symposium
    Electrochemistry and Fluid Solid Interfaces Tuesday Sessions
       Session EC+SS-TuM

Invited Paper EC+SS-TuM3
Electrochemical Synthesis of Multifunctional Building Blocks for Nanosystems

Tuesday, November 4, 2003, 9:00 am, Room 326

Session: Water at Interfaces I: Structure and Electrochemistry
Presenter: P.C. Searson, Johns Hopkins University
Correspondent: Click to Email
Electrochemical synthesis is an important tool in the fabrication of multicomponent or layered structures with high aspect ratio. Nanometer size particles, such as nanorods or nanowires exhibit many unique properties associated with their inherent shape anisotropy. For example, ferromagnetic (FM) nanowires exhibit unique and tunable magnetic properties due to the shape anisotropy and the small wire dimensions. The introduction of multiple segments along the length of a nanowire can lead to further degrees of freedom associated with the shape of each segment and the coupling between the layers. For example, modifying the diameter, composition, and layer thicknesses in multilayer FM/NM (NM = nonmagnetic material) nanowires it is possible to tailor the orientation of the magnetic easy axis and properties such as the Curie temperature, coercivity, saturation field, saturation magnetization, and the remanent magnetization. The unique properties of multisegment nanowires can also be exploited in suspensions where the manipulation and assembly of nanometer scale particles has become an important tool in nanotechnology. The ability to bind molecules with different functionalities to different components in multisegment nanowires introduces an additional degree of freedom that is potentially important in enhancing surface reactions, immobilizing molecules, and assembling scaffolds for tissue engineering.