| Popis: |
Electropolymerizing conducting polymers is one of the fastest and most controllable nanofabrication techniques for functional coatings and interfaces. Intrinsically conducting polymers with highly conjugated architectures are unique smart materials that can reversibly switch between an insulating (reduced) state and a conducting (oxidized) upon doping. Depending on its oxidation state, the polymer exhibits distinct changes in optical, electrical and mechanical properties, which are the foundation of various electrochromic, actuator, and electronic applications. Among synthetic methods for conducting polymers, electrochemical synthesis via an oxidative coupling mechanism is preferred because of its simplicity and the high control it offers toward the resulting film thickness and morphology. Considering these advantages, this dissertation focuses on the formation, characterization, and applications of electropolymerized conducting polymer films particularly in developing molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) sensors and multi-component patterning. Chapter 1 provides a background overview on conducting polymers, molecular imprinting and colloidal sphere or nanosphere lithography, which is the primary patterning technique used in this work. Chapter 2 reports the use of electropolymerized polyterthiophene films as MIP sensors for pyrene, a representative polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compound and environmental contaminant. Chapter 3 incorporated nanosphere lithography into developing electropolymerized poly(terthiophene-carboxylic acid) arrays as MIP sensors for aspartame, a well-known peptide sweetener that allegedly has harmful health effects. The last three chapters were devoted toward multi-component patterning with inorganic and biological materials. Chapter 4 demonstrates the stepwise fabrication and characterization of binary co-patterns made up of an inverse honeycomb polycarbazole array backfilled with electrodeposited gold. The polycarbazole was subsequently etched thus revealing a periodic array of gold islands. Chapter 5 details the fabrication of a freely standing membrane demonstrating the hierarchical assembly of Cowpea mosaic virus nanoparticles on a nanopatterned polypyrrole array. Chapter 6 demonstrates a different approach in fabricating conducting polymer/virus arrays by decorating the outer protein surface of CPMV with electrochemically cross-linkable pyrrole units and co-electrodepositing the virions with polypyrrole to form nanopatterns. Finally, Chapter 7 presents a general summary of the dissertation and some general insights on the future direction of the research. |
