Solvent Effects on Morphology and Electrical Properties of Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Electrospun Nanofibers

Abstract

Herein, poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) nanofiber-based organic field-effect transistors were successfully prepared by coaxial electrospinning technique with P3HT as the core polymer and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as the shell polymer, followed by extraction of PMMA. Three different solvents for the core polymer, including chloroform, chlorobenzene and 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene, were employed to manipulate the morphologies and electrical properties of P3HT electrospun nanofibers. Through the analyses from dynamic light scattering of P3HT solutions, polarized photoluminescence and X-ray diffraction pattern of P3HT electrospun nanofibers, it is revealed that the P3HT electrospun nanofiber prepared from the chloroform system displays a low crystallinity but highly oriented crystalline grains due to the dominant population of isolated-chain species in solution that greatly facilitates P3HT chain stretching during electrospinning. The resulting high charge-carrier mobility of 3.57 × 10−1 cm2·V−1·s−1 and decent mechanical deformation up to a strain of 80% make the P3HT electrospun nanofiber a promising means for fabricating stretchable optoelectronic devices.

Multilevel Photonic Transistor Memory Devices Based on 1D Electrospun Semiconducting Polymer /Perovskite Composite Nanofibers

“…In contrast to conventional film‐based semiconducting composites, a 1D composite nanostructure of conjugated polymer/βNC was formed by using a coaxial electrospinning technique to manipulate the molecular packing and preferred chain orientation of polythiophenes to enhance the charge transport performance, as reported in previous publications. [ 72–78 ] Furthermore, the integration of composite nanofiber as 1D photonic transistor can effectively enhance area density of the device and also simplify device architecture. It is critical to mention that PEO was used to produce aligned coaxial fibers due to the difficulty of forming fibers by pure polythiophene‐only solution because of its low solubility and viscosity, rigid polymer backbone, and high crystallinity.…”

“…[ 54–71 ] In particular, this technique could enhance the molecular packing and preferred orientation of conjugated polymer chains in a 1D confined structure, resulting in superior transport properties with a high carrier mobility. [ 72–76 ] Nanoparticles containing conjugated polymer nanofibers exhibit good electrical memory device characteristics under a low operating voltage owing to increased electric field generation in the 1D semiconducting channel. Our group developed a flexible transistor memory by embedding gold nanoparticles into a p‐type P3HT nanofiber matrix exhibiting memory storage capability under a low operating voltage.…”

“…Various polythiophenes, including poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT), poly[4,4′‐bis‐9,2‐butyloctyl)‐(5,5′‐2,2′‐bithiophene)‐ alt ‐5,5′‐2,2′‐bithiophene] (PQT), and poly(3‐hexylthiophene‐ co ‐thiophene) (RP‐17), were applied as a semiconducting channel of the nanofiber matrix based on the nanofiber‐based transistor concept in previous studies. [ 72–77 ] The morphology and crystallinity of both the perovskite nanoparticles and conjugated polymer nanofibers were investigated to scrutinize the molecular alignment and polymer chain packing in the confined coaxial electrospun fibers. The time‐dependent programming of composite nanofibers was used to examine the photo‐excited charge trapping and depletion behavior of the nanofibers.…”

Fabrication of Nano/Micro-Structured Electrospun Detection Card for the Detection of Pesticide Residues

“…To successfully obtain the electrospun fiber mat, the appropriate solvent for PCL electrospinning should be initially investigated. It is known that solvents with low boiling points are more suitable for electrospinning [ 17 ]. Hence, a commonly used solvent, chloroform (CHCl 3 ), was selected for hydrophobic PCL electrospinning, and methanol (CH 3 OH) was further blended with it to decrease the fast evaporation of the solvent during the electrospinning process because of the lower boiling point of the CHCl 3 [ 18 ].…”

SCryPTA:A web-based platform for analyzing Small-Angle Scattering curves of lyotropic liquid crystals

“…Nonpolar organic solvents have been widely reported as a convenient method used to dissolve hydrophobic bioactive molecules [48][49][50][51] . Nevertheless, due to its hydrophobic nature, it may induce changes in nanoparticles depending on its concentration.…”