Electronic transport in CdSe nanoplatelet based polymer fibres

One of the most significant objectives in the field of nanotechnology is the transfer of specific properties of smaller nanoparticle building blocks into larger units. In this way, nanoscopic properties can be linked to the macroscopic addressability of larger systems. Such systems might find applications in fields like photoelectrochemical sensing or solar energy harvesting. Our work reports on the novel synthesis of hybrid semiconductor/polymer fibres, which are based on stacks of 4 monolayer (ML) thick CdSe nanoplatelets (NPLs) encapsulated into a polymer shell. The polymer encapsulation not only enables the water transfer of the NPL stacks but also allows the preparation of photoelectrodes by linking the fibres to surface modified indium tin oxide (ITO) glass slides. By applying electrochemical techniques like intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPS), it was possible to prove the motion of charge carriers inside the nanoplatelet stacks and by this the electronic addressibility of them.