Uniform electroactive fibre-like micelle nanowires for organic electronics

Xiaoyu Li, Piotr J. Wolanin, Liam R. MacFarlane, Robert L. Harniman, Jieshu Qian, Oliver E. C. Gould, Thomas G. Dane, John Rudin, Martin J. Cryan, Thomas Schmaltz, Holger Frauenrath, Mitchell A. Winnik, Charl F. J. Faul () and Ian Manners ()
Additional contact information
Xiaoyu Li: School of Chemistry, University of Bristol
Piotr J. Wolanin: School of Chemistry, University of Bristol
Liam R. MacFarlane: School of Chemistry, University of Bristol
Robert L. Harniman: School of Chemistry, University of Bristol
Jieshu Qian: School of Chemistry, University of Bristol
Oliver E. C. Gould: School of Chemistry, University of Bristol
Thomas G. Dane: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
John Rudin: Folium Optics Ltd
Martin J. Cryan: University of Bristol
Thomas Schmaltz: Laboratory of Macromolecular and Organic Materials, Institute of Materials, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), EPFL–STI–IMX–LMOM
Holger Frauenrath: Laboratory of Macromolecular and Organic Materials, Institute of Materials, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), EPFL–STI–IMX–LMOM
Mitchell A. Winnik: University of Toronto
Charl F. J. Faul: School of Chemistry, University of Bristol
Ian Manners: School of Chemistry, University of Bristol

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Micelles formed by the self-assembly of block copolymers in selective solvents have attracted widespread attention and have uses in a wide variety of fields, whereas applications based on their electronic properties are virtually unexplored. Herein we describe studies of solution-processable, low-dispersity, electroactive fibre-like micelles of controlled length from π-conjugated diblock copolymers containing a crystalline regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) core and a solubilizing, amorphous regiosymmetric poly(3-hexylthiophene) or polystyrene corona. Tunnelling atomic force microscopy measurements demonstrate that the individual fibres exhibit appreciable conductivity. The fibres were subsequently incorporated as the active layer in field-effect transistors. The resulting charge carrier mobility strongly depends on both the degree of polymerization of the core-forming block and the fibre length, and is independent of corona composition. The use of uniform, colloidally stable electroactive fibre-like micelles based on common π-conjugated block copolymers highlights their significant potential to provide fundamental insight into charge carrier processes in devices, and to enable future electronic applications.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15909 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15909

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15909

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().