Third Prize: "Root"

Author: Mr. Konstantin Demidenok Leibniz-Institut fur Polymer Forshung Dresden (Germany)

AFM nanoestructures

Image Description:

The ability to control the size of conductive nanostructures and to manipulate them on a nanometer scale are priority subjects in the field of nanotechnology. One of the promising way for miniaturization is a template direct method. Polyelectrolytes molecules (PE) offers a range of interesting properties, such as, unique recognition, association and ability to assemble conductive polymers and metals. That is why PE are one of the most attractive templates. The ability to reproducibly create and align well-stretched PE molecules very important for realizing nanoscale electronics. We developed a simple method creating highly aligned PE molecules, which enabled us to straighten and fix PE molecules on the surface without any surface modification or special equipment. Some times, during our AFM measurement, we found unusual structures. One of them have been chosen for SPMAGE07. This image represent part of PE network absorbed on hydrophobic surface.