Air-Liquid Interfacial Self-Assembly of Conjugated Block Copolymers into Ordered Nanowire Arrays

作者：Cativo Ma Helen M; Kim David K; Riggleman Robert A; Yager Kevin G; Nonnenmann Stephen S; Chao Huikuan; Bonnell Dawn A; Black Charles T; Kagan Cherie R; Park So Jung^*

来源：ACS Nano, 2014, 8(12): 12755-12762.

DOI：10.1021/nn505871b

• amphiphilic polymer
• conjugated copolymer
• air-water interface
• self-assembly
• supramolecular chemistry

The ability to control the molecular packing and nanoscale morphology of conjugated polymers is important for many of their applications. Here, we report the fabrication of well-ordered nanoarrays of conjugated polymers, based on the self-assembly of conjugated block copolymers at the airliquid interface. We demonstrate that the self-assembly of poly(3-hexylthiophene)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) (P3HT-b-PEG) at the airwater interface leads to large-area free-standing films of well-aligned P3HT nanowires. Block copolymers with high P3HT contents (82-91%) formed well-ordered nanoarrays at the interface. The fluidic nature of the interface, block copolymer architecture, and rigid nature of P3HT were necessary for the formation of well-ordered nanostructures. The free-standing films formed at the interface can be readily transferred to arbitrary solid substrates. The P3HT-b-PEG films are integrated in field-effect transistors and show orders of magnitude higher charge carrier mobility than spin-cast films, demonstrating that the airliquid interfacial self-assembly is an effective thin film fabrication tool for conjugated block copolymers.

• 出版日期2014-12