Self-Assembling VO₂ Nanonet with High Switching Performance at Wafer-Scale

Technologically controlling nanostructures is essential to tailoring the functionalities and properties of nanomaterials. Various methods free from lithography-based techniques have been employed to fabricate 2D nanostructures; however it is still hard to achieve a well interconnected 2D regular nanostructure. Here, we demonstrate a facile chemical solution method to self-assemble a regular and interconnected VO₂ nanonet on the wafer scale. The nanonet shows a well-defined 2D truss network constructed by VO₂ nanorods with twinning relationships. The growth direction and crystallographic orientation of nanorods are synchronously controlled, leading to horizontally epitaxial growth of nanorods along three symmetric directions of the (001) single-crystal sapphire substrate. The unique nanonets enable the acquisition of excellent resistance switching properties and dramatic fatigue endurance. A large resistance change of near 5 orders with a 1.7 °C width of the hysteresis loop is characterized comparably to the properties of single crystals without detectable degradation after 500 cycles over the metal-to-insulator transition. It indicates that the nanonet can serve as an exceptional candidate for practical application in switching functional devices. Our findings offer a novel pathway for self-assembly of 2D ordered nanostructures, which would provide new opportunities for the bottom-up integration of nanodevices.