Manufacturing a nanowire-based sensing system via flow-guided assembly in a microchannel array template

A novel flow-guided assembly approach is presented to accurately align and position nanowire arrays in pre-defined locations with high throughput and large-scale manufacturing capability. In this approach, a polymer solution is first filled in an array of microfluidic channels. Then a gas flow is introduced to blow out most of the solution while pushing a little leftover against the channel wall for assembly into polymer nanowires. In this way, highly ordered nanowires are conveniently aligned in the flow direction and patterned along both sides of the microchannels. In this study, we demonstrated this flow-guided assembly process by producing millimetre-long nanowires across a 5 × 12 mm area in the same orientation and with basic 'I-shape', 'T-shape', and 'cross' patterns. The assembled polymer nanowires were further converted to conductive carbon nanowires through a standard carbonization process. After being integrated into electronic sensors, high sensitivity was found in model protein sensing tests. This new nanowire manufacturing approach is anticipated to open new doors to the fabrication of nanowire-based sensing systems and serve as good manufacturing practice for its simplicity, low cost, alignment reliability, and high throughput.