Insulated Molecular Wires: Sheathing Semiconducting Polymers with Organic Nanotubes through Heterogeneous Nucleation

Abstract

International audienceInsulated molecular wires formed from organic molecules may have promising applications in organic and flexible electronic devices. Here, the authors provide compelling evidence of the formation of insulated molecular wires by sheathing conducting regioregular poly(3-butylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3BT) fibrils with insulating nanotubes from 3,5-bis-(5-hexylcarbamoylpentyloxy)-benzoic acid decyl ester molecules through a nucleation and growth process. For dilute systems, conducting atomic force microscopy together with force-distance curves and current-voltage spectroscopy are concomitantly performed to sense current from the topmost surface to the core of the composite fibrils at controlled tip indentation depths. Results show that current is sensed only when the core of the nanocomposite fibrils is reached which indicates the presence of an insulating layer around the semiconducting P3BT fibrils. The existence of this molecular nanocomposite is further supported by neutron scattering experiments carried out on more concentrated systems at different temperatures

Investigation of Physical and Electronic Properties of GeSe for Photovoltaic Applications

“…With further increase of voltages, a quadratic dependence of the transition from TFL to Child's regime was observed in both hole and electron-only devices (orange line, n = 2). In the trap-free SCLC regime, the dark current can be well fitted by the Mott-Gurney equation [41][42][43][44][45] …”

“…With further increase of voltages, a quadratic dependence of the transition from TFL to Child's regime was observed in both hole and electron‐only devices (orange line, n = 2). In the trap‐free SCLC regime, the dark current can be well fitted by the Mott–Gurney equationwhere J is the current density, µ is the charge carrier mobility, V is the applied voltage, d is the thickness of GeSe thin film, ε is the relative dielectric constant of GeSe, and ε 0 is the vacuum permittivity. The hole and electron mobilities were estimated to be 10.4 and 11.2 cm 2 V −1 s −1 from the curve fitting, respectively.…”

Hybrid Physical Gels from Polymers and Self-Assembled Systems: A Novel Path for Making Functional Materials

“…The scattering curve of the bhpb-10/trans-decahydronaphthaleneD system can be fitted with a bunch of parrallel hollow cylinders [25]: into the selected fibril until it reaches the gold layer. The current and the force are simultaneously measured to determine the conductivity and the penetration depth, respectively (for details see reference [26]). Copyright 2018 John Wiley & Sons.…”

“…Another experiment was carried out by mapping the current that flows across grounded and isolated gold electrodes separated by an insulating µm trough [26]. By using contact mode C-AFM, current maps are concomitantly recorded with the topography.…”

“…I-V plots (lower curves) vs penetration depth (upper curves). From left to right: insulator behaviour, appearance of current, semi-condutor behaviour [26]…”