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Issue 10, 2012
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Structured oligo(aniline) nanofilms via ionic self-assembly†

Thomas G. Dane,a   Philip T. Cresswell,a   Oier Bikondoa,b   Gemma E. Newby,b   Thomas Arnold,c   Charl F. J. Faul*a  and  Wuge H. Briscoe*a  
Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

a School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock's Close, Bristol, UK
E-mail: charl.faul@bristol.ac.uk, wuge.briscoe@bris.ac.uk

b XMaS, The UK-CRG Beamline at the Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, 6 Rue Jules Horowitz, B.P. 220, Grenoble CEDEX 9, UK, France

c Diamond Light Source Ltd., Diamond House, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire, UK

Abstract

Conducting polymers have shown great potential for application in electronic devices. A major challenge in such applications is to control the supramolecular structures these materials form to optimise the functionality. In this work we probe the structure of oligo(aniline) thin films (of sub-μm thickness) drop cast on a silicon substrate using synchrotron surface diffraction. Self-assembly was induced through doping with an acid surfactant, bis(ethyl hexyl) phosphate (BEHP), resulting in the formation of well-ordered lamellae with the d-spacing ranging from 2.15 nm to 2.35 nm. The exact structural characteristics depended both on the oligomer chain length and film thickness, as well as the doping ratio. Complementary UV/Vis spectroscopy measurements confirm that such thin films retain their bulk electronic properties. Our results point to a simple and effective ionic self-assembly approach to prepare thin films with well-defined structures by tailoring parameters such as the oligomer molecular architecture, the nanofilm composition and the interfacial roughness.

Graphical abstract: Structured oligo(aniline) nanofilms via ionic self-assembly

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Publication details

The article was received on 03 Aug 2011, accepted on 23 Nov 2011 and first published on 23 Dec 2011


Article type: Paper
DOI: 10.1039/C2SM06492H
Soft Matter, 2012,8, 2824-2832

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    Structured oligo(aniline) nanofilms via ionic self-assembly

    T. G. Dane, P. T. Cresswell, O. Bikondoa, G. E. Newby, T. Arnold, C. F. J. Faul and W. H. Briscoe, Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 2824
    DOI: 10.1039/C2SM06492H

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