Guided self-assembly of Fe3O4 nanoparticle on chemically active surface templates generated by electro-oxidative nanolithography

An approach for the site-selective binding of magnetic Fe3O4 particles onto predefined surface templates is reported. Chem. active surface patterns are prepd. by electro-oxidative nanolithog. performed with the conductive tip of a scanning probe microscope on n-octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) monolayers self-assembled on silicon. The chem. functionalization allows prefabricated nanoparticles with an org. ligand shell to attach selectively on these surface sites, just by immersing the sample into the particle soln. Besides the use of the active surface patterns to guide the assembly of Fe3O4 nanoparticles with nanometer precision, several aspects of the patterning process are briefly discussed in terms of optimization of the obtainable line width. [on SciFinder (R)]