Functional nanofibers in microelectronics applications

The market demand for new devices and gadgets is ever increasing; this applies enormous pressure on researchers all over the world who are engaged in materials science to come up with new materials such as polymers and ceramics, as alternatives to the conventional inorganic materials like silicon and gallium arsenide. In addition to this, recent developments in device geometries have been moving toward using even smaller materials, namely from 2-D thin films to 1-D fibers, tubes, rods and even zero-dimensional quantum dots, etc. In this context, this chapter attempts to review the recent research trends in the fabrication of fibers by a specialized but simple process of electrospinning, and the applications of such functionalized nanofibers in the area of new electronic devices. © 2012 Woodhead Publishing Limited All rights reserved.