Prof. Dr. Axel Müller

There has been growing interest in one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures in the last decade, such as nanowires, nanotubes, or nanorods, due to the size-dependent optical and electronic properties and their potential application as building blocks, interconnects and functional components for assembling nanodevices. Significant progress has been made, however, the strict control of the distinctive geometry at extremely small size for 1D structures remains a great challenge in this field. The anisotropic nature of cylindrical polymer brushes (CPBs) has been applied to template 1D nanostructured materials, such as metal, semiconductor or magnetic nanowires. Here, by constructing the CPBs themselves with a precursor-containing monomer, we successfully synthesized hybrid nanowires with a silsesquioxane core and a shell made up from oligo(ethyleneglycol methacrylate) units, which are soluble in water and many organic solvents. They were characterized by AFM, TEM, SEM, and cryo-TEM. The length and diameter of these rigid wires are tunable by the degrees of polymerization of both the backbone and the side chain. They show lyotropic liquid-crystalline behavior and can be pyrolized to silica nanowires. This approach provides a new route to the controlled fabrication of inorganic or hybrid silica nanostructures by living polymerization techniques.