Nanowires that can be fabricated with metallic and semiconducting segments provide an attractive building block for the fabrication of functional nanoscale integrated systems. Assembling functional nanowire structures in 2 and 3 dimensions, however still remains extremely challenging.

This talk will describe the strategy of surface modification and interfacial patterning of nanowires to guide their assembly into networks and 3D structures. We utilize interfacial molecular coupling agents and modify interfacial diffusion to guide the bottom-up assembly of metallic nanowires to form permanently bonded structures.

In addition to detailing the self-assembling strategies used, the talk will describe examples of applications of nanowire self-assembled aggregates in electronics and 2D and 3D spatial sensors. The sensors utilize surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and electronic current-voltage measurements to detect analytes adsorbed on the nanowire networks. In particular we will focus on the sensing of analytes using 3D networks to facilitate spatial sensing of a chemical analyte with sub-micron scale resolution.