Polyaniline nanowires on Si surfaces fabricated with DNA templates

It is essential to put individual, free-standing nanowires onto insulating substrates and integrate them to useful devices. Here we report a strategy for fabrication of conducting polymer nanowires on thermally oxidized Si surfaces by use of DNA as templates. The direct use of stretched and immobilized DNA strands as templates avoids the agglomeration of DNA caused by shielding of charges on DNA when polyaniline/DNA complexes formed in solution. Most importantly, the oriented DNA strands immobilized on the Si surface predetermine the position and the orientation of the nanowires. The approach described here is the first step toward uniting the programmable-assembly ability of DNA with the unique electronic properties of conducting polymers for high-density functional nanodevices. The conductivity of the nanowires is very sensitive to the proton doping-undoping process, suggesting that the nanowires hold great promise for sensitive chemical sensor applications.