Patterning of conducting polymer nanowires on gold/platinum electrodes

We demonstrate a technique for the patterning of conducting polyaniline nanowires on metallic substrates. Electrochemical synthesis of template-free polyaniline nanowires is initially preceded by the formation of a thin compact 2D layer, which we show spreads horizontally from the edge of a gold electrode across a SiO(2) surface. This encumbers nanowire patterning during the fabrication of nanowire devices since it leads to electrical short-circuiting of the metal contacts before the nanowires have fully developed. In this paper we demonstrate the use of amine-terminated self-assembled monolayers, 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, to inhibit the spread of polyaniline growth onto adjacent SiO(2) surfaces. The technique has important applications in the fabrication of nanowire devices and area-selective patterning of nanowires on metallic electrodes.