Lithography-Free Water Stable Conductive Polymer Nanowires.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39943879.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c05016 and PMC identifier 11869357.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Free-standing nanowires can gain intracellular access without causing stress or apoptosis. Current approaches to generate nanowires focus on lithographic patterning and inorganic materials (Si, GaAs, Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>, etc.) while organic materials are less explored. Use of organic conductive polymers allows for the creation of soft mixed ion-electron conducting nanowires. Processing conductive polymers into nanowires is challenging due to the harsh chemicals and processing conditions used. Here, we demonstrate a lithography-free and scalable method to generate all-organic, water-stable nanowires composed of conductive polymers. A nanoporous membrane is filled with conductive polymer in solution, followed by a cross-linking step to make the polymer water stable. The surface of the membrane is anisotropically etched using a reactive ion etcher to reveal the polymer inside the pores, which extends from the membrane as nanowires. We interface the nanowires with model algal cells and human primary hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.