Molecular-resolved imaging of the Hierarchical Self-Assembly of a conductive polymer at single-walled carbon nanotube interfaces

Bell, John M. and Goh, Roland and Motta, Nunzio and Musumeci, Anthony W. and Waclawik, Eric R. (2006) Molecular-resolved imaging of the Hierarchical Self-Assembly of a conductive polymer at single-walled carbon nanotube interfaces. In Proceedings ICONN '06. International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, 2006, pages pp. 610-613, USA.

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Abstract

Molecular-resolved real-space images of self-assembled structures of the conductive polymer regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (rrP3HT) on single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) substrates were obtained using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The STM images revealed that the adsorbed polymer formed a 10 nm thick coating on some SWNT's in agreement with previous transmission electron microscopy results. This thickness corresponds to a coating of ~25 layers of polymer on SWNT, assuming that pi-pi interactions between rrP3HT layers and the underlying SWNT directs the polymer self-assembly process. The polymer backbone interchain spacing (dcc = 1.55 nm) of the outermost layer of adsorbed rrP3HT is approximately 7% larger than is observed for rrP3HT adsorbed on HOPG (dcc = 1.45 nm). The polymer also wraps around the SWNT at an angle with respect to the SWNT long-axis, which indicates that rrP3HT self-assembly is hierarchical. The conductive polymer's deposition occurs with epitaxy and is directed by the underlying SWNT chiral structure.

Item Type:	Conference Paper
RM Number:	2007007394
Status:	Published
Subjects:	Subjects UNSPECIFIED
ID Code:	9461
Deposited By:	Steele, Gregory John
Deposited On:	12 September 2007
Alternative Locations:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICONN.2006.340692, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=4143472
Copyright Owner:	Copyright 2006 IEEE
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