| Abstract Scope |
Tremendous effort has been taken for nanofabrication of metals as they exhibit desirable functional properties. However, existed approaches are typically limited in some critical aspects such as material choice, geometry, and scalability. As a versatile and widely used method, nanomolding is realized for soft materials including polymers, gels, and glasses, but not for crystalline metals that remain hard in crystalline state. Recently, we discovered that nanomolding is possible with crystalline metals and results into single crystal nanowires by atomic diffusion down a pressure gradient. Most effective at ~0.5 Tm, such thermomechanical-nanomolding (TMNM) results in very high aspect ratio up to 1000 and nanowires down to 5 nm in diameter. We will discuss the underlying mechanism resulting into the formation of single crystals, the observed change in composition in solid solutions and precise maintenance in composition in intermetallics, and TMNM as a versatile tool for nanofabrication of functional intermetallics and heterostructures. |