Institute Silicon Photovoltaics

Heterostructure of graphene with conjugated polyelectrolyte

This work is the first to integrate conjugated polyelectrolytes with graphene (see Fig. 5a) [5]. The electronic properties of the resulting nanoscale heterobilayers are unlike anything that could be predicted on the basis of the individual components. Specifically, we have shown that conjugated polyelectrolyte leads to n-type conduction in the graphene layer, and more importantly, it is possible to achieve conditions so that the predominant charge carriers change from electrons to holes upon heating the sample across a narrow temperature range (see Fig. 5b). The findings are also anticipated to promote efforts in molecular-level structural characterization since this information will be critical for providing a clear understanding of how the two components in contact promote such unexpected results.

Fig. 5

references

[5] Conjugated polyelectrolyte/graphene heterobilayer nanocomposites exhibit temperature switchable type of conductivity; Brus, V.V.; Gluba, M.A.; Mai, Ch.-K.; Fronk, S.L.; Rappich, J.; Nickel, N.H.; Bazan, G.C.; Advanced Electronic Materials 3 (2017) 1600515.