Ultrafast charge separation at a single-walled carbon nanotube - Polymer interface

We report the observation of an ultrafast (∼ 430 fs) charge transfer process at the interface between a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) wrapped by a semi-conducting polymer, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), creating free polarons on both materials. The addition of excess P3HT as a surrounding net...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Stranks, S, Weisspfennig, C, Parkinson, P, Johnston, M, Herz, L, Nicholas, R
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2011
Description
Summary:We report the observation of an ultrafast (∼ 430 fs) charge transfer process at the interface between a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) wrapped by a semi-conducting polymer, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), creating free polarons on both materials. The addition of excess P3HT as a surrounding network allows these free polarons to be long-lived at room temperature. Our results suggest that SWNT-P3HT blends incorporating only 1% fractions of SWNTs can achieve a charge separation efficiency comparable to a conventional 60:40 P3HT-fullerene blend, provided small-diameter tubes are embedded in an excess P3HT matrix. © 2011 Materials Research Society.