Contorted Octabenzocircumbiphenyl Sorts Semiconducting Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes with Structural Specificity

J Gao and N Sengar and Y Wu and S Jockusch and C Nuckolls and P Clancy and YL Loo, CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS, 29, 595-604 (2017).

DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b04018

In this study, we use a nonplanar aromatic molecule, contorted octabenzocircumbiphenyl (c-OBCB), to sort semiconducting single -walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) by their chiral angles. From absorption spectroscopy, photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy studies, we find that c-OBCB preferentially binds and sorts for a number of semiconducting carbon nanotubes with chiral angles greater than 12 degrees. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the contorted aromatic core of c-OBCB binds strongly to only certain SWNTs, especially those with matching curvature, and that this discriminatory binding interaction is reinforced by preferences of the side chains on the c-OBCB to stick to SWNT surface rather than interact with the solvent. This opens the door to side chain/solvent engineering to bias the selection of certain (m,n) SWNT variants. We also investigate the temperature dependence mobility in field-effect transistors comprising c-OBCB-sorted semiconducting carbon-nanotube networks and find hole transport in these networks to be thermally activated. of hole

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