On the fabrication of crystalline C60 nanorod transistors from solution

Flexible and high-aspect-ratio C(60) nanorods are synthesized using a liquid-liquid interfacial precipitation process. As-grown nanorods are shown to exhibit a hexagonal close-packed single-crystal structure, with m-dichlorobenzene solvent molecules incorporated into the crystalline structure in a C(60):m-dichlorobenzene ratio of 3:2. An annealing step at 200 °C transforms the nanorods into a solvent-free face-centred-cubic polycrystalline structure. The nanorods are deposited onto field-effect transistor structures using two solvent-based techniques: drop-casting and dip-coating. We find that dip-coating deposition results in a preferred alignment of non-bundled nanorods and a satisfying transistor performance. The latter is quantified by the attainment of an electron mobility of 0.08 cm (2) V(-1) s(-1) and an on/off ratio of > 10(4) for a single-crystal nanorod transistor, fabricated with a solution-based and low-temperature process that is compatible with flexible substrates.