Electroless deposition of Cu nanostructures on molecular patterns prepared by dip-pen nanolithography

Abstract

Cu nanostructures deposited on the top of self-assembled molecular patterns prepared by Dip-pen Nanolithography (DPN) are investigated thoroughly in this study. 16-Mercaptohexadecanoic acid (MHA) molecular patterns are used as templates and CuSO₄ is reduced by electroless deposition method. According to the SEM, EDS and AFM test results, it is found that the formation and the dimension of the Cu nanostructure array can be governed by reaction conditions and the size of molecular patterns. The non-specific growth of Cu can also be minimized in the present work. The method designed has demonstrated its capability in the synthesis of molecular junctions with high reproducibility. Distinct phenomena of underpotential deposition behaviors of Cu on polycrystalline gold substrates covered with self-assembled monolayers of 16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid and octadecanethiol are also studied and discussed.