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Nanorubbing of polythiophene surfaces
Gwennaelle Derue1, Séverine Coppée, Sylvain Gabriele
1Laboratoire de Physicochimie des Polymères, Service de Chimie des Matériaux Nouveaux, Université de Mons-Hainaut, 20 Place du Parc, B-7000 Mons, Belgium.
Abstract:
This work describes a new orientation method for semicrystalline poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) thin films, coupling nanorubbing and subsequent crystallization. Using the stylus of an atomic force microscope, we align the polymer chains on P3HT surfaces with a spatial and geometrical control of the oriented domains (nanorubbing). These chain-aligned structures can be made permanent thanks to the crystallization process, which propagates the orientation obtained at the surface to the bulk.
