Metal nanowire and filament research is a field of study with significant practical applicability. Filaments are often described as atomic extensions, like wires, of a parent metal sheet which can be lengthened and contracted at specific voltages. Due to their unique properties at a small scale, some researchers have studied how nanowires may be used in molecular sensing for toxic molecules such as hydrogen sulfide. Others have looked to how filaments can be used as circuit components in electronic devices; certain voltages can switch a circuit device from a high resistance state to a low one by growing and retracting metal filaments to complete or break the circuit. Filaments are desirable in these cases. In other scenarios, it would be beneficial to prevent filament formation; one may wish to halt filament formation in batteries to circumvent short circuiting. Therefore, it is of great importance to study the nature of these filaments�how they form, break, and respond under a set of conditions.Here we outlined the use of electrochemical reactions to form silver metal filaments on gold interdigitated array (IDA) electrode devices to study filament behavior. IDAs are ideal for these studies because they are simple to prepare and allow for rapid trials and setup modification. We also studied the effect of self assembled organic molecules on filament behavior. We found that filament formation may be promoted and removed by a specific threshold voltage and formation may be resisted by organic alkanethiol layers at the gold electrode or silver nanowire.

Ag filament formation at nanogaps formed from electrodeposited Ag nanowires

246th National Meeting (2013)

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