Fabrication of One-Dimensional Zigzag [6,6]-Phenyl-C61-Butyric Acid Methyl Ester Nanoribbons from Two-Dimensional Nanosheets

Our most recent work has been published in the journal of ACSnano. This time we synthesized one-dimensional zigzag PCBM nanoribbons that are ~4 nm wide, equivalent to four PCBM molecules, and lengths of 20–400 nm. These nanoribbons show well-defined crystalline structure, comprising PCBM molecules in a hexagonal arrangement. The manuscript has been published as open access and can be downloaded below.

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Eduardo Gracia-Espino, Hamid Reza Barzegar, Tiva Sharifi, Aiming Yan, Alex Zettl, and Thomas Wågberg.

ACS Nano, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b04972
See also the press release.

Abstract

One-dimensional (1D) zigzag [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) nanoribbons are produced by folding two-dimensional ultrathin PCBM nanosheets in a simple solvent process. The unique 1D PCBM nanostructures exhibit uniform width of 3.8 ± 0.3 nm, equivalent to four PCBM molecules, and lengths of 20–400 nm. These nanoribbons show well-defined crystalline structure, comprising PCBM molecules in a hexagonal arrangement without trapped solvent molecules. First-principle calculations and detailed experimental characterization provide an insight into the structure and formation mechanism of the 1D PCBM nanoribbons. Given their dimensions and physical properties, we foresee that these nanostructures should be ideal as acceptor material in organic solar cells.