Hybrid Nanostructure Formation Using Nanoparticle-Mediated Molecular Crystallization

Organic/inorganic hybrid structures have drawn significant interest due to their unique physical and chemical properties and are attractive in electronic, optical, and biosensing applications. Incorporating both organic and inorganic components can combine and sometimes enhance the functions belonging to different material groups. Here we propose a universal strategy to synthesize organic/inorganic hybrid nanostructures using inorganic nanoparticles to induce the nucleation and crystallization of organic crystalline compounds. Various inorganic nanoparticles (e. g. thiol-protected cadmium selenide and gold nanoparticles) are used to direct organic crystal growth (e. g. carboxylic acids with different chain length and tetrathiafulvalene) via spin coating and electrochemical method. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is the main characterization tool to investigate the topography of the hybrid nanostructures and the nucleation and crystallization process. Our work will contribute to the understanding of seed-mediated nucleation and crystallization, molecular ordering under nanoconfinement and hybrid nanomaterials.