Microcontact Transfer Printing of Zeolite Monolayers

2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag Gmb Zeolites are aluminosilicates that are used in a broad field of applications. Because of their ion-exchange capabilities, presence of well-defined rigid cavities, and transparency in the UV–vis/NIR region, zeolites can act as water softeners, catalysts, and host systems for a variety of photoactive guests. In particular, zeolite L, which possesses unidirectional channels, has been shown to be a suitable material for supramolecular organization of different kinds of molecules. The size (30 nm to several micrometers) and aspect ratio of L-type zeolite can be controlled synthetically. Furthermore, it has been shown recently that they can be organized in monolayers on a silica substrate by chemical functionalization. Interestingly, the orientation of the channels is perpendicular to the surface so that they can be filled after their immobilization. However, reports on the formation of well-orderedmonolayers on other (conductive) substrates have been very limited and so far it has not yet been possible to transfer them from one surface to another without disruption of the monolayer. However, the preparation of an oriented monolayer of zeolite L crystals on certain substrates (silicon wafers, ITO, gold) represents an important prerequisite for achieving a controlled architecture of such microsized building blocks for possible optoelectronic applications. Many authors have reported several methods for pursuing this goal by chemical treatment of target surfaces via different kinds of molecular linkers, and in some cases perfect monolayers were achieved, especially for zeolite A. We report a strategy based on the microcontact printing technique (MCP) to obtain well-ordered and uniformly oriented zeolite L monolayers on conductive surfaces without any chemical modification of the zeolite or the substrate. MCP, which has been employed by many authors, represents an inexpensive tool for the formation of a wide variety of molecular assemblies, ranging from quantum dots and silicon particles to carbon nanotubes and nanowires, and it has been also applied to pattern materials allowing new applications in device fabrication. [21–26] We have successfully applied this technique to create particular patterns with L-type zeolites that were filled with fluorescent dyes. We have also demonstrated that it is possible not only to apply the method to cylindrical objects by transferring them and maintaining their orientation, but also to use the anisotropy of the systems to control the different color emissions of zeolites filled with two different dyes by exciting the materials with polarized light.

[1]  John A. Rogers,et al.  Bendable single crystal silicon thin film transistors formed by printing on plastic substrates , 2005 .

[2]  G. Calzaferri,et al.  Phenoxazine dyes in zeolite L, synthesis and properties , 2003 .

[3]  G. Calzaferri,et al.  Energy Collection, Transport, and Trapping by a Supramolecular Organization of Dyes in Hexagonal Zeolite Nanocrystals , 2006 .

[4]  K. B. Yoon,et al.  Ultrasound‐Aided Remarkably Fast Assembly of Monolayers of Zeolite Crystals on Glass with a Very High Degree of Lateral Close Packing , 2005 .

[5]  G. Calzaferri,et al.  Host-guest antenna materials. , 2003, Angewandte Chemie.

[6]  G. Calzaferri,et al.  Optical spectroscopy of inorganic–organic host–guest nanocrystals organized as oriented monolayers , 2007 .

[7]  M. Chan-Park,et al.  Transfer printing of submicrometer patterns of aligned carbon nanotubes onto functionalized electrodes. , 2007, Small.

[8]  Bai Yang,et al.  Fabricating colloidal crystals and construction of ordered nanostructures , 2006, Nanoscale Research Letters.

[9]  A. Corma,et al.  Zeolite-based photocatalysts. , 2004, Chemical communications.

[10]  G. Calzaferri,et al.  Synthesis of Zeolite L. Tuning Size and Morphology , 2005 .

[11]  C. Tripp,et al.  Photoluminescence and Raman Spectroscopy as Probes to Investigate Silver and Gold Dicyanide Clusters Doped in A-Zeolite and Their Photoassisted Degradation of Carbaryl , 2001 .

[12]  T. Sun,et al.  Silver Clusters and Chemistry in Zeolites , 1994 .

[13]  Gion Calzaferri,et al.  Monolayers of zeolite A containing luminescent silver sulfide clusters. , 2004, Chemphyschem : a European journal of chemical physics and physical chemistry.

[14]  John A Rogers,et al.  Printed multilayer superstructures of aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes for electronic applications. , 2007, Nano letters.

[15]  Bai Yang,et al.  Microcontact printing of colloidal crystals. , 2004, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[16]  K. B. Yoon,et al.  Aligned monolayer assembly of zeolite crystals on platinum, gold, and indium–tin oxide surfaces with molecular linkages , 2004 .

[17]  K. B. Yoon.  Organization of zeolite microcrystals for production of functional materials. , 2007, Accounts of chemical research.

[18]  J. Ha,et al.  Control of adsorption and alignment of V2O5 nanowires via chemically functionalized patterns , 2007 .

[19]  G. Calzaferri,et al.  Zeolite A and zeolite L monolayers modified with AgCl as photocatalyst for water oxidation to O2 , 2007 .

[20]  George M. Whitesides,et al.  Patterning Self-Assembled Monolayers: Applications in Materials Science , 1994 .

[21]  John A Rogers,et al.  Heterogeneous Three-Dimensional Electronics by Use of Printed Semiconductor Nanomaterials , 2006, Science.

[22]  T. Desai,et al.  Microcontact printing of quantum dot bioconjugate arrays for localized capture and detection of biomolecules , 2008, Biomedical microdevices.

[23]  K. B. Yoon,et al.  Facile monolayer assembly of fluorophore-containing zeolite rods in uniform orientations for anisotropic photoluminescence. , 2006, Angewandte Chemie.

[24]  Gion Calzaferri,et al.  Organizing supramolecular functional dye-zeolite crystals. , 2006, Angewandte Chemie.

[25]  S. T. King.  Reaction Mechanism of Oxidative Carbonylation of Methanol to Dimethyl Carbonate in Cu–Y Zeolite , 1996 .

[26]  J. Weitkamp,et al.  Novel zeolite catalysis to create value from surplus aromatics: preparation of C2+-n-alkanes, a high-quality synthetic steamcracker feedstock , 2001 .

[27]  John A Rogers,et al.  Molecular scale buckling mechanics in individual aligned single-wall carbon nanotubes on elastomeric substrates. , 2008, Nano letters.

[28]  M. Anpo,et al.  THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE LOCAL STRUCTURE OF COPPER(I) IONS ON CU+/ZEOLITE CATALYSTS AND THEIR PHOTOCATALYTIC REACTIVITIES FOR THE DECOMPOSITION OF NOX INTO N2 AND O2 AT 275 K , 1998 .

[29]  G. Calzaferri,et al.  Orientation of Fluorescent Dyes in the Nano Channels of Zeolite L , 2001 .