Combining Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes and Photoactive Polymers for Photoconversion

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society Vol. 127; no. 28; pp. 10051 - 10057
• Main Authors: Rahman, G. M. Aminur, Guldi, Dirk M, Cagnoli, Rita, Mucci, Adele, Schenetti, Luisa, Vaccari, Lisa, Prato, Maurizio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 20.07.2005
• Subjects: Chemistry; Electrochemistry; Exact sciences and technology; General and physical chemistry; Photoelectrochemistry. Electrochemiluminescence; Indium tin oxide electrode; Electrostatic interaction; Carbon nanotubes; Experimental study; Heterocyclic polymer; Cyclic voltammetry; Absorption spectrometry; Singlewalled nanotube; Electrochemical properties; Thiophene derivative polymer; Van der Waals interaction; Photoelectric current; Photovoltaic conversion; Modified material
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/ja050396k

A combination of van der Waals and electrostatic interactions was used to integrate SWNT and a suitably functionalized polythiophene into nanostructured ITO electrodes. In the resulting electron donor/acceptor nanocomposites, polythiophene represents the light-harvesting chromophore that readily donates an excited-state electron to the ground-state electron-accepting SWNT. Upon illumination, monochromatic incident photoconversion efficiencies between 1.2 and 9.3% were determined for single and eight-sandwiched layers, respectively.