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Uniaxial alignment of poly(3-hexylthiophene) nanofibers by zone-casting approach

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Abstract

The preparation of large area coverage of films with uniaxially aligned poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) nanofibers by using zone-casting approach is reported. The length and the orientation of the nanofibers are defined by the solubility of the solvent, the P3HT molecular weight and the substrate temperature. The length of the oriented nanofibers could be increased from 1 μm to more than 10 μm by adding poor solvent into the P3HT solution. It is found that for P3HT of relatively low molecular weight, a solvent with relatively low solubility has to be chosen to get the oriented film. While for the high molecular weight P3HT, the solvent with a relatively high solubility has to be used. The well-aligned film could be obtained because of the solute concentration gradient in the region where the critical concentration is reached during the zone-casting process. Particularly, the solvent evaporation rate and crystallization rate must be chosen properly to satisfy the stationary conditions above, which were controlled by an appropriate choice of solvent and substrate temperature. The film prepared by zone-casting approach had microcrystalline P3HT domains with more inter-chain order than spin-coating film. Meanwhile, the P3HT π-π stacking direction was parallel to the alignment direction of the nanofibers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China

    Xiang Gao, Ru-bo Xing, Jian-gang Liu & Yan-chun Han  (韩艳春)

Authors
  1. Xiang Gao
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  2. Ru-bo Xing
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  3. Jian-gang Liu
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  4. Yan-chun Han  (韩艳春)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yan-chun Han  (韩艳春).

Additional information

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 20921061, 20834005 and 51073151) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2009CB930603).

Invited paper dedicated to Professor Fosong Wang on the occasion of his 80th birthday

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Gao, X., Xing, Rb., Liu, Jg. et al. Uniaxial alignment of poly(3-hexylthiophene) nanofibers by zone-casting approach. Chin J Polym Sci 31, 748–759 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-013-1284-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-013-1284-x

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