Li Zha, He Pan, Chong Hui, Furube Akihiro, Seki Kazuhiko, Yu Hsiao-Hua, Tajima Keisuke, Ito Yoshihiro, Kawamoto Masuki
Nano Medical Engineering Laboratory, RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
Emergent Bioengineering Materials Research Team and Emergent Functional Polymers Research Team, RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
ACS Omega. 2017 Apr 25;2(4):1625-1632. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.7b00175. eCollection 2017 Apr 30.
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have received much attention because of their potential in optoelectronic applications. Pristine SWCNTs exhibit substantial van der Waals interactions and hydrophobic characteristics, so precipitation occurs immediately in most organic solvents and water. Highly toxic and hazardous chemicals are often used to obtain well-dispersed SWCNTs. Developing environmentally friendly processing methods for safe and practical applications is a great challenge. Here, we demonstrate direct exfoliation of SWCNTs in pure water only with n-type semiconducting fullerene nanoparticles. The resultant SWCNTs can be well-dispersed in water, where they remain essentially unchanged for several weeks. Adding an aqueous solution of p-type semiconducting water-soluble polythiophene yields self-assembled p/n heterojunctions between polythiophene and the nanoparticles. The aqueous-dispersed SWCNTs yield photocurrent responses in solution-processed thin films as a potential application of water-dispersed carbon nanomaterials.
单壁碳纳米管（SWCNTs）因其在光电子应用中的潜力而备受关注。原始的单壁碳纳米管表现出大量的范德华相互作用和疏水特性，因此在大多数有机溶剂和水中会立即发生沉淀。通常使用剧毒和危险化学品来获得分散良好的单壁碳纳米管。开发用于安全和实际应用的环保加工方法是一项巨大的挑战。在这里，我们展示了仅使用n型半导体富勒烯纳米颗粒在纯水中直接剥离单壁碳纳米管。所得的单壁碳纳米管可以很好地分散在水中，在水中它们可以在几周内基本保持不变。添加p型半导体水溶性聚噻吩的水溶液会在聚噻吩和纳米颗粒之间产生自组装的p/n异质结。作为水分散碳纳米材料的潜在应用，水分散的单壁碳纳米管在溶液处理的薄膜中产生光电流响应。
