Optical/thermal studies on nanostructures of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and carbon nanotube/graphene precursors

Abstract

Crystallization of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) was investigated in pre-developed carbon nanotube (CNT)/P3HT, reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/P3HT, CNT-g-P3HT/P3HT and rGO-g-P3HT/P3HT supramolecules as well as differential scanning calorimetric (DSC)-crystallized samples. Absorbance, structure details via Scherrer formula, melting enthalpy (ΔH_m) and crystallinity (X_c) were focused. CNT-g-P3HT/P3HT butterfly supramolecules possessed larger and more compact and ordered crystallites than rGO-g-P3HT/P3HT cake-like ones. Highest melting point, fusion enthalpy, and crystallinity contents were recorded for butterfly (246.3 °C, 32.23 J/g and 87.11%) and cake-like (241.7 °C, 31.07 J/g and 83.97%) supramolecules. Melt-grown CNT-g-P3HT/P3HT and rGO-g-P3HT/P3HT nanostructures did not demonstrate quality of respective butterfly and cake-like supramolecules; however, they had better characteristics compared with melt-grown CNT/P3HT and rGO/P3HT samples. Grafted rGO nanosheets were the best seeding agents for crystallization of P3HT chains in melt state. The largest (D₍₁₀₀₎ = 18.01 nm and D₍₀₂₀₎ = 4.18 nm) and most-packed (d₍₁₀₀₎ = 14.29 Å and d₍₀₂₀₎ = 3.84 Å) crystallites and also the highest crystallinity (X_c = 41.16%) were acquired for rGO-g-P3HT based melt-grown nanostructures.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• P3HT
• CNT
• rGO
• Scherrer formula
• crystallinity