Hierarchical self-assembly of hexagonal single-crystal nanosheets into 3D layered superlattices with high conductivity

Abstract

While the number of man-made nano superstructures realized by self-assembly is growing in recent years, assemblies of conductive polymer nanocrystals, especially for superlattices, are still a significant challenge, not only because of the simplicity of the shape of the nanocrystal building blocks and their interactions, but also because of the poor control over these parameters in the fabrication of more elaborate nanocrystals. Here, we firstly report a facile and general route to a new generation of 3D layered superlattices of polyaniline doped with CSA (PANI-CSA) and show how PANI crystallize and self-assemble, in a suitable single solution environment. In cyclohexane, 1D amorphous nanofibers transformed to 1D nanorods as building blocks, and then to 2D single-crystal nanosheets with a hexagonal phase, and lastly to 3D ordered layered superlattices with the narrowest polydispersity value (M_w/M_n = 1.47). Remarkably, all the instructions for the hierarchical self-assembly are encoded in the layered shape in other non-polar solvents (hexane, octane) and their conductivity in the π–π stacking direction is improved to about 50 S cm⁻¹, which is even higher than that of the highest previously reported value (16 S cm⁻¹). The method used in this study is greatly expected to be readily scalable to produce superlattices of conductive polymers with high quality and low cost.