| The fields of carbon nanotube and indium-oxide nanowires are joined together with molecular and polymeric functionalization in this dissertation. The combination of two disparate materials into a distinct heterostructure brings about materials properties uniquely different from their constituents. Chapter 1 lays the groundwork for these materials and our motivation to explore their combinatorial properties.; Chapter 2 explores molecular-based information storage based on an architecture consisting of a porphyrin self-assembled monolayer onto indium-tin oxide field effect transistors. These studies are fundamentally based on the inherent, reversible redox-active nature of porphyrins to serve as distinct memory states. Synthesis from the ground-up of the porphyrin and metalloporphyrin species through to the design and testing of the memory device is presented.; Chapter 3 presents a test model to accurately predict the thickness of various doped electropolymerized polypyrrole films. These results provide an invaluable template in the effort to synthesize either carbon nanotube or indium-tin oxide nanowires coated with a nanoscale polypyrrole sheath as performed in the following chapters.; Having established a reliable template for polypyrrole film growth, chapter 4 incorporates these conditions in the formation of polypyrrole-coated carbon nanotube heterostructures to investigate the inherent quality that this electroactive polymer possesses to reversibly undergo electrochemical induced volume changes at the smallest scales known thus far.; In addition to the uncanny ability to reversibly alter its physical dimensions, the formation of polypyrrole-coated carbon nanotube and polypyrrole-coated indium-oxide nanowires presents an immensely intriguing view into the electrical properties that result from the combination of two inherently conducting materials into a single distinct heterostructure as explored in chapter 5. Alteration to the polypyrrole layer by various means present attractive routes for electrical properties modification of the overall nanostructure. |
