Selective Surface Activation of a Functional Monolayer for the Fabrication of Nanometer Scale Thiol Patterns and Directed Self-Assembly of Gold Nanoparticles

Application of a voltage bias between the tip of an atomic force microscope (AFM) and a silicon substrate causes the localized modification of a specially designed self-assembled monolayer (SAM), transforming a surface-bound thiocarbonate into a surface-bound thiol. The resulting surface-bound thiols are used to direct the patternwise self-assembly of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). This methodology is applied to deposit individual AuNPs onto a surface with nanometer precision and to produce 10 nm lines of closely spaced AuNPs that are a single nanoparticle in width.