One-dimensional single-walled semiconducting nanotubes (s-CNTs) exhibit excellent charge carrier mobility, high thermal conductivity, mechanical flexibility, and facile solution processability making them great candidates for the next generation of electronic devices. However, their promising potential has been limited by a simultaneous need to achieve highly pure s-CNT inks that can be deposited with high-degree alignment and spatial control onto substrates in a scalable manner. We recently demonstrated that the solvent density near the s-CNTs and the substrate can play a key role in the adsorption process of poly(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-alt-co-(6,6’-[2,2’-{bipyridine}])](PFO-Bpy)-wrapped s-CNTs onto various chemically functionalized surfaces. Specifically, results suggested that the oscillatory solvent density that arises near the hexamethyldisilazane- grafted surfaces leads to thermodynamically favorable s-CNT adsorption, whereas the lack of the solvent density near the octadecyltrichlorosilane-grafted surface leads to uniformly repulsive s-CNT interactions. We describe detailed experimental studies on the adsorption behavior of PFO-BPy-wrapped s-CNTs onto chemically functionalized surfaces. The chemically functionalized surfaces cover a broad range of adsorption behavior of s-CNTs from organic solvents and are created by systematic variation in the type and size of the functional group. These studies will further guide rational substrate design for controlling PFO-BPy-wrapped s-CNT deposition from organic solvents for next-generation semiconducting electronics.

Adsorption behavior of polymer-wrapped carbon nanotubes onto chemically functionalized surfaces

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.