Nanorobot assisted self-soldering investigation between PVP-coated silver electrodes and carbon nanotubes

Although the soldering of functional nanomaterials has been achieved by various methods, the readily oxidative properties of the nanoelectrodes and their corresponding preventing oxidation method by coating dielectric-layer make their soldering extremely difficult. Here, we report an effective method for soldering dielectric-coated nanowires to electrodes directly by vacuum contact annealing. This annealing process is performed within an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) by a nanorobot-assisted nanomanipulation system. The results show that the conductivity of the soldered nanostructure is enhanced by about 1000 times after a 130s annealing process. The joining strength on the junction point was also estimated up to 112 MPa (0.22 μN), which is sufficient for the interconnection of the nanomaterials. Our recipe highlights the promise of soldering dielectric-coated readily oxidizable electrodes for fabricating nanoelectronic devices and conductive transparent films.