TY - JOUR
T1 - Surfactant-free water-processable photoconductive all-carbon composite
AU - Tung, Vincent C.
AU - Huang, Jen Hsien
AU - Tevis, Ian
AU - Kim, Franklin
AU - Kim, Jaemyung
AU - Chu, Chih Wei
AU - Stupp, Samuel I.
AU - Huang, Jiaxing
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2011/4/6
Y1 - 2011/4/6
N2 - Heterojunctions between different graphitic nanostructures, including fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and graphene-based sheets, have attracted significant interest for light to electrical energy conversion. Because of their poor solubility, fabrication of such all-carbon nanocomposites typically involves covalently linking the individual constituents or the extensive surface functionalization to improve their solvent processability for mixing. However, such strategies often deteriorate or contaminate the functional carbon surfaces. Here we report that fullerenes, pristine single walled carbon nanotubes, and graphene oxide sheets can be conveniently coassembled in water to yield a stable colloidal dispersion for thin film processing. After thermal reduction of graphene oxide, a solvent-resistant photoconductive hybrid of fullerene-nanotube-graphene was obtained with on-off ratio of nearly 6 orders of magnitude. Photovoltaic devices made with the all-carbon hybrid as the active layer and an additional fullerene block layer showed unprecedented photovoltaic responses among all known all-carbon-based materials with an open circuit voltage of 0.59 V and a power conversion efficiency of 0.21%. The ease of making such surfactant-free, water-processed, carbon thin films could lead to their wide applications in organic optoelectronic devices.
AB - Heterojunctions between different graphitic nanostructures, including fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and graphene-based sheets, have attracted significant interest for light to electrical energy conversion. Because of their poor solubility, fabrication of such all-carbon nanocomposites typically involves covalently linking the individual constituents or the extensive surface functionalization to improve their solvent processability for mixing. However, such strategies often deteriorate or contaminate the functional carbon surfaces. Here we report that fullerenes, pristine single walled carbon nanotubes, and graphene oxide sheets can be conveniently coassembled in water to yield a stable colloidal dispersion for thin film processing. After thermal reduction of graphene oxide, a solvent-resistant photoconductive hybrid of fullerene-nanotube-graphene was obtained with on-off ratio of nearly 6 orders of magnitude. Photovoltaic devices made with the all-carbon hybrid as the active layer and an additional fullerene block layer showed unprecedented photovoltaic responses among all known all-carbon-based materials with an open circuit voltage of 0.59 V and a power conversion efficiency of 0.21%. The ease of making such surfactant-free, water-processed, carbon thin films could lead to their wide applications in organic optoelectronic devices.
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U2 - 10.1021/ja1103734
DO - 10.1021/ja1103734
M3 - Article
C2 - 21391674
AN - SCOPUS:79953880165
VL - 133
SP - 4940
EP - 4947
JO - Journal of the American Chemical Society
JF - Journal of the American Chemical Society
SN - 0002-7863
IS - 13
ER -