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The use of chemically active surface templates to perform chemical reactions and self-assembly on the nanoscale has been identified as a powerful approach towards nanofabrication. The structures are inscribed to a self-assembled monolayer of n-octadecyltrichlorosilane by means of a conductive SFM tip, which locally initiates the electrochemical oxidation of the terminal –CH3 groups of the monolayer into reactive –COOH groups. These structures allow the site-selective assembly of additional (functional) monolayers, the self-assembly of nanomaterials (e.g. nanoparticles and nanotubes) and the performance of chemical reactions directly on the structures.
The combination of different modification schemes leads to a powerful toolbox of functionalization approaches that holds promises to develop a comprehensive methodology to assemble complex device features. We give an overview about recently developed modification strategies, including click chemistry functionalization on nanometer scale patterns, complexation of terpyridines on functionalized monolayers etc. These modification schemes are seen to be important building blocks towards the hierarchical bottom-up fabrication of functional device features.
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