Issue 12, 2015

A carbon–carbon hybrid – immobilizing carbon nanodots onto carbon nanotubes

Abstract

The thrust of this work is to integrate small and uniformly sized carbon nanodots (CNDs) with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) of different diameters as electron donors and electron acceptors, respectively, and to test their synergetic interactions in terms of optoelectronic devices. CNDs (denoted pCNDs, where p indicates pressure) were prepared by pressure-controlled microwave decomposition of citric acid and urea. pCNDs were immobilized on single-walled carbon nanotubes by wrapping the latter with poly(4-vinylbenzyl trimethylamine) (PVBTA), which features positively charged ammonium groups in the backbone. Negatively charged surface groups on the CNDs lead to attractive electrostatic interactions. Ground state interactions between the CNDs and SWCNTs were confirmed by a full-fledged photophysical investigation based on steady-state and time-resolved techniques. As a complement, charge injection into the SWCNTs upon photoexcitation was investigated by ultra-short time-resolved spectroscopy.

Graphical abstract: A carbon–carbon hybrid – immobilizing carbon nanodots onto carbon nanotubes

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
27 Jul 2015
Accepted
18 Aug 2015
First published
20 Aug 2015
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2015,6, 6878-6885

Author version available

A carbon–carbon hybrid – immobilizing carbon nanodots onto carbon nanotubes

V. Strauss, J. T. Margraf, T. Clark and D. M. Guldi, Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 6878 DOI: 10.1039/C5SC02728D

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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