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A nanomesh scaffold for supramolecular nanowire optoelectronic devices

Nature Nanotechnology volume 11, pages 900–906 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Supramolecular organic nanowires are ideal nanostructures for optoelectronics because they exhibit both efficient exciton generation as a result of their high absorption coefficient and remarkable light sensitivity due to the low number of grain boundaries and high surface-to-volume ratio. To harvest photocurrent directly from supramolecular nanowires it is necessary to wire them up with nanoelectrodes that possess different work functions. However, devising strategies that can connect multiple nanowires at the same time has been challenging. Here, we report a general approach to simultaneously integrate hundreds of supramolecular nanowires of N,N′-dioctyl-3,4,9,10-perylenedicarboximide (PTCDI-C8) in a hexagonal nanomesh scaffold with asymmetric nanoelectrodes. Optimized PTCDI-C8 nanowire photovoltaic devices exhibit a signal-to-noise ratio approaching 107, a photoresponse time as fast as 10 ns and an external quantum efficiency >55%. This nanomesh scaffold can also be used to investigate the fundamental mechanism of photoelectrical conversion in other low-dimensional semiconducting nanostructures.

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Figure 1: Design of a vertical-channel nanomesh scaffold with asymmetrical and tunable contact.
Figure 2: The photovoltaic effect of PTCDI-C8 supramolecular nanowires fully covering a bare nanomesh scaffold.
Figure 3: The photovoltaic effect of PTCDI-C8 supramolecular nanowires on a P3HT-modified nanomesh scaffold.
Figure 4: Device engineering with different hole-transporting layers.

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Acknowledgements

We thank F. Liscio for help with XRD analysis. This work was financially supported by European Commission through the European Research Council project SUPRAFUNCTION (grant agreement no. 257305) and the Marie Curie ITN project iSwitch (grant agreement no. 642196), the ANR Equipex Union (ANR-10-EQPX-52-01), the Labex projects CSC (ANR-10-LABX-0026 CSC) and Nanostructures in Interaction with their Environment (ANR-11-LABX-0058 NIE) within the Investissement d'Avenir program (ANR-10- 120 IDEX-0002-02), and the International Center for Frontier Research in Chemistry (icFRC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ISIS & icFRC, University of Strasbourg & CNRS, 8 allée Gaspard Monge, Strasbourg, 67000, France

    Lei Zhang, Xiaolan Zhong, Songlin Li, Alexander Klekachev, Thomas W. Ebbesen, Emanuele Orgiu & Paolo Samorì

  2. Laboratory for Organic Matter Physics, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 13, SI-5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia

    Egon Pavlica & Gvido Bratina

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Contributions

L.Z., E.O. and P.S. conceived the experiment and designed the study. L.Z. performed the experiments and developed the fabrication method. X.Z. performed SEM characterization. E.P. and G.B. undertook the transient response analysis. L.Z., E.O., S.L. and A.K. measured the optoelectronic devices. L.Z., E.O., T.W.E. and P.S. co-wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the interpretation of data as well as to the editing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Emanuele Orgiu or Paolo Samorì.

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Zhang, L., Zhong, X., Pavlica, E. et al. A nanomesh scaffold for supramolecular nanowire optoelectronic devices. Nature Nanotech 11, 900–906 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2016.125

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