Researchers at IMDEA Materials Institute have developed a pioneering method to assemble silicon nanowires into ordered, macroscopic networks: a key step toward expanding their industrial applications.
Silicon nanowires offer exceptional energy storage capacity, electrical conductivity, and mechanical strength, making them ideal for next-generation batteries, electronics, and advanced functional materials.
However, individual silicon nanowires are just 10–50 nanometers in diameter, roughly 1,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair. As such, many of their most promising current and potential applications require the ability to process and assemble them into larger bundles.
Scaling this assembly process to an industrial level has typically proven difficult as it requires precise control over the alignment and density of the bundled nanowires, crucial for their performance in applications like batteries and sensors.
"One-dimensional nanomaterials typically exit the reactor as randomly aggregated powders," explains researcher Dr. David Tilve. "In this disordered state, their properties and potential applications are severely limited. A key challenge is to self-assemble these nanowires into ordered, nanostructured materials to unlock their full potential."
"By successfully processing these nanowires into highly aligned bundles, we can significantly increase the contact surface between individual nanowires, a feature not observed in randomly oriented networks."
"This level of structural order is not straightforward to achieve and marks a notable advancement in nanowire assembly techniques," he adds.
To read more, click here.