How to grow wires and tiny plates
Researchers at MIT have found a way to control precisely the shapes of submicroscopic wires deposited from a solution — using a method that makes it possible to produce entire electronic devices through a liquid-based process.The team demonstrated the technique by producing a functional light-emitting diode (LED) array made of zinc oxide nanowires in a single beaker, instead of the several separate steps and devices required for conventional production. They were able to do so under relatively benign conditions, with moderate temperatures and no vacuum needed.Unlike larger structures, with nanomaterials — those with dimensions measured in nanometers, or billionths of a meter — differences in shape can lead to dramatic differences in behavior. “For nanostructures, there’s a coupling between the geometry and the electrical and optical properties,” explains Brian Chow, a postdoc at MIT and co-author of a paper describing the results that was published July 10 in the journal...