Plasma‐Etched Nanosphere Conductivity‐Inverted Lithography (PENCIL): A Facile Fabrication of Size‐Tunable Gold Disc Array on ITO‐Coated Glass

Abstract

Nanosphere lithography is employed to simply fabricate metallic hexagonal nanohole array based on metal deposition within interstices of the nanospheres. In contrast, fabrication of nanodisc array (inverted pattern of nanohole array) unavoidably includes an additional step of creating a patterned resist layer or the use of high‐resolution lithography techniques. In this work, a facile method named “plasma‐etched nanosphere conductivity‐inverted lithography (PENCIL)” is developed to fabricate gold disc arrays on indium tin oxide (ITO)‐coated glass by simply incorporating plasma etching of nanosphere lithographic mask and electrodeposition of metal. The hexagonal close‐packed polystyrene (PS) spheres are served as mask for blocking an interaction of oxygen plasma and ITO surface. Topographic images and current mappings reveal different thicknesses and conductivities of plasma‐etched ITO surface. The exposed surface (gap area) exhibits higher resistivity compare with the area protected by spheres. As a result, site‐selective electrodeposition of gold is produced on patterned substrate. The microdiscs size, as well as the size and density of nanoparticles situated within the disc area can be tuned via etching and electrodeposition conditions. This suggests a simple, low‐cost, and high‐throughput technique, which potentially facilitate the expansive use of metal disc array in studying the structural dependent properties of nanomaterials.

Photophysical and Electrochemical Study of New Luminescent and Redox-Active Tetrazine Derivatives Grafted on Gold Nanoparticles

“…Plasmonic substrates made of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) on a conductive transparent substrate like indium tin oxide (ITO) are now well mastered to be used as electrodes for photoelectrochemical investigations or sensor applications. They can be designed using several techniques from the simplest ones (electrodeposition − ) to the most sophisticated (lithography). − The former ones have the advantage to be cheap and easy to be implemented, sometimes without any surfactant or additives, while the latter leads to well-controlled and ordered assemblies with tunable sizes, shapes, and inter-particle distances. These substrates can be post-functionalized by molecular compounds using various methods among which self-assembly through sulfur containing anchoring groups has been probably the most popular.…”

Ag Nanostructures on Poly(3-hexylthiophene) and Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Substrates for SERS Detection of Rhodamine B and Electrochemical Detection of Hydrogen Peroxide

“…Thus, it is essential to choose an appropriate substrate that has high conductivity and excellent charge transfer properties for the photoassisted electrodeposition method, which is usually referred to be semiconductor substrates, such as ITO, Si, , and ZnO, for preparing metal/semiconductor hybrid materials. However, the effect of illumination on these substrates is not remarkable enough, which contributed little to the development of the method.…”