Spontaneous Complexation of Fullerene Aggregates on Nanodiamond Aggregates and Their Enhanced Photocurrent Generation.

Supramolecular composites composed of fullerene C and carbon nanodiamond (ND) were constructed through spontaneous complexation of C aggregates onto the surface of ND aggregates in N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP). The resulting C -ND composite was assembled onto a nanostructured SnO electrode by an electrophoretic deposition method. Formation of the C -ND composite was confirmed by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The C -ND composite on the SnO electrode showed high incident photon-to-current efficiencies (IPCEs) in the visible region as compared with the single component system of C or ND. The improved photocurrent generation of the C -ND composite may result from the photoinduced charge separation at the interface between C and ND. These results obtained here will provide valuable information on the design of optoelectronic devices based on all-nanocarbon materials.