Technology that manufactures 1 nm ultra-micro gap metal sensor by adjusting micro gap between metals is developed.
Team led by Professor Kang Tae Wook of Sogang University along with Berkeley research team announced on the 3rd that they succeeded in manufacturing ultra-micro gap between equal metals on large surface.
Previous method that continuously cuts metal board was very expensive and its work process was very inefficient. Method that uses self-arrangement of metal nano-particles also had a problem where a gap did not exist at all due to special characteristic of metal nano-particles that tend to join together.
To solve problems of previous technologies, research team used a simple method that covers metal nano-particle with a shell then selectively removes a shell after self-arrangement of particle. This method then made 1 nm ultra-micro gap on large surface.
If distance between metal nano-particles form a ultra-micro gap by reducing its distance to that of 100,000th of a hair, electromagnetic field surrounding metal nano-particles are greatly amplified. It will be faster to detect materials with lower concentrations as gap gets smaller and it can be applied on variety of sensors.
Ultra-micro gap metal structure can be used on variety of fields such as battery, photocatalyst, meta-material, illness diagnosis sensor, and etc. due to its excellent physical and optical properties.
“Despite its excellent characteristics, ultra-micro gap metal nano-material is mostly staying in laboratories because it requires high professionalism and technology levels. Because this research helps a lot with development and application of ultra-micro gap metal nano-material, I expect that commercialization and industrialization of nano-bio sensor field will be moved up.” Professor Kang Tae Wook talked about effects of this research will have on nano-bio field in the future.
Result of this research was chosen as the cover thesis for academic journal called ‘Advanced Materials’ that will come out on the 5th of August.
Staff Reporter Kwon, Kunho | wingh1@etnews.com