Uniform electroactive fibre-like micelle nanowires for organic electronics

作者:Li, Xiaoyu; Wolanin, Piotr J.; MacFarlane, Liam R.; Harniman, Robert L.; Qian, Jieshu; Gould, Oliver E. C.; Dane, Thomas G.; Rudin, John; Cryan, Martin J.; Schmaltz, Thomas; Frauenrath, Holger; Winnik, Mitchell A.; Faul, Charl F. J.*; Manners, Ian*
来源:Nature Communications, 2017, 8(1): 15909.
DOI:10.1038/ncomms15909

摘要

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 pi-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 pi-conjugated block copolymers highlights their significant potential to provide fundamental insight into charge carrier processes in devices, and to enable future electronic applications.