| Saberi Moghaddam, R.; Hüttner, S.; Vaynzof, Y.; Ducati, C.; Divitini, G.; Lohwasser, R.H.; Musselman, K.P.; Sepe, A.; Scherer, M.R.J.; Thelakkat, M.; Steiner, U.; Friend, R.H.: Polymer Crystallization as a Tool To Pattern Hybrid Nanostructures: Growth of 12 nm ZnO Arrays in Poly(3-hexylthiophene)., Nano Letters 13(9), 4499-4504 (2013) -- DOI: 10.1021/nl4024275 | |
| Abstract: Well-ordered hybrid materials with a 10 nm length scale are highly desired. We make use of the natural length scale (typically 10-15 nm) of the alternating crystalline and amorphous layers that are generally found in semicrystalline polymers to direct the growth of a semiconducting metal oxide. This approach is exemplified with the growth of ZnO within a carboxylic acid end-functionalized poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT-COOH). The metal-oxide precursor vapors diffuse into the amorphous parts of the semicrystalline polymer so that sheets of ZnO up to 0.5 mum in size can be grown. This P3HT-ZnO nanostructure further functions as a donor-acceptor photovoltaic system, with length scales appropriate for charge photogeneration. |
