Issue 4, 2016

Flat-on ambipolar triphenylamine/C60 nano-stacks formed from the self-organization of a pyramid-sphere-shaped amphiphile

Abstract

A giant amphiphile, which is constructed with an amorphous nano-pyramid (triphenylamine, TPA) and a crystalline nano-sphere (C60), was synthesized. Structural characterization indicates that this pyramid-sphere-shaped amphiphile (TPA–C60) forms a solvent-induced ordered phase, in which the two constituent units self-assemble into alternating stacks of two-dimensional (2D) TPA and C60 nano-sheets. Due to the complexity of the molecular structure and the amorphous nature of the nano-pyramid, phase formation was driven by intermolecular C60–C60 interactions and the ordered phase could not be reformed from the TPA–C60 melt. Oriented crystal arrays of TPA–C60, which contain flat-on TPA/C60 nano-stacks, can be obtained via a PDMS-assisted crystallization (PAC) technique. The flat-on dual-channel supramolecular structure of TPA–C60 delivered ambipolar and balanced charge-transport characteristics with an average μe of 2.11 × 10−4 cm2 V−1 s−1 and μh of 3.37 × 10−4 cm2 V−1 s−1. The anisotropic charge-transport ability of the pyramid-sphere-shaped amphiphile was further understood based on the lattice structure and the lattice orientation of TPA–C60 revealed from electron diffraction analyses.

Graphical abstract: Flat-on ambipolar triphenylamine/C60 nano-stacks formed from the self-organization of a pyramid-sphere-shaped amphiphile

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
07 Nov 2015
Accepted
25 Dec 2015
First published
04 Jan 2016
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., 2016,7, 2768-2774

Author version available

Flat-on ambipolar triphenylamine/C60 nano-stacks formed from the self-organization of a pyramid-sphere-shaped amphiphile

W. Liang, C. Huang, K. Wu, S. Wu, S. Chang, Y. Cheng and C. Wang, Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 2768 DOI: 10.1039/C5SC04242A

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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