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Published on: August 23, 2012
Surface Functionalization with Copper Tetraaminophthalocyanine Enables Efficient Charge Transport in Indium Tin Oxide
Mahdi Samadi Khoshkhoo1, Santanu Maiti1, Frank Schreiber1
1Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, ‡Institute of Applied Physics, and §Center for Light-Matter Interaction, Sensors & Analytics LISA+, University of Tübingen , 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
Abstract:
Macroscopic superlattices of tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanocrystals (NCs) are prepared by self-assembly at the air/liquid interface followed by simultaneous ligand exchange with the organic semiconductor copper 4,4',4″,4‴-tetraaminophthalocyanine (Cu4APc). By using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS), and ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared (UV-vis-NIR) spectroscopy, we demonstrate that the semiconductor molecules largely replace the native surfactant from the ITO NC surface and act as cross-linkers between neighboring particles. Transport measurements reveal an increase in electrical conductance by 9 orders of magnitude, suggesting that Cu4APc provides efficient electronic coupling for neighboring ITO NCs. This material provides the opportunity to study charge and spin transport through phthalocyanine monolayers.
