Building complex nanostructures using
a simple patterned template is challenging in material science and
nanotechnology. In the present work, three different strategies have
been exploited for the successful fabrication of hybrid dots-on-wire
metallic nanostructures through combining an in-situ method with an
ex-situ method. Basically, plasma etching was applied to generate
a metallic wire-like nanostructure, and preformed nanoparticles could
be placed through multiple means before or after the formation of
the wire-like nanostructure. Various monometallic and bimetallic nanostructures
have been obtained by utilizing only one functional domain of block
copolymer templates. In these cases, full utilization of the functional
domain or introduction of
the molecular linker is critical to engineering hybrid metallic nanostructures.
Other complex and multifunctional hybrid nanostructures can be developed
via these strategies similarly, and these nanostructures are promising
for useful applications such as optics and surface-enhanced Raman
spectroscopy (SERS)
