Porphyrin nanostructures have led to biological advancements in medicine due to their highly conjugated nature providing unique electronic properties. Further, serving as a great foundation for self-assembly, TCPP (tetra(p-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin) has the ability to form nanowires with a surface that can easily be modified for medical sensing technologies. While porphyrin based nanowires are an ideal candidate for biological applications, the structures need extended studies to fully understand the electronic properties for further utilization in medical techniques such as photodynamic therapy. Here, nanowires of TCPP self-assembled via titration with hydrochloric acid were studied to better understand their conductive properties. The controlled self-assembled nanowires (at a pH of 1) were drop-casted onto a Au(111) surface to be characterized with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and conductive-probe atomic force microscopy (CP-AFM). Initial IV-curves on the gold reference showed conductive behavior, while the IV-curves of the TCPP/HCl nanowires exhibited semi-conductive behavior. Further studies involve slicing the wires via nanolithography to measure the size-dependent conductive properties of porphyrin nanowires, along with phosphorescence measurements.<br/>

Electronic properties of porphyrin nanowires

255th National Meeting (2018)

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