Effect of Carbon Dots Concentration on Electrical and Optical Properties of Their Composites with a Conducting Polymer

Grigorii V Nenashev; Maria S Istomina; Roman S Kryukov; Valeriy M Kondratev; Igor P Shcherbakov; Vasily N Petrov; Vyacheslav A Moshnikov; Andrey N Aleshin

doi:10.3390/molecules27228000

Effect of Carbon Dots Concentration on Electrical and Optical Properties of Their Composites with a Conducting Polymer

Molecules. 2022 Nov 18;27(22):8000. doi: 10.3390/molecules27228000.

Authors

Grigorii V Nenashev¹, Maria S Istomina^{2

3}, Roman S Kryukov², Valeriy M Kondratev⁴, Igor P Shcherbakov¹, Vasily N Petrov¹, Vyacheslav A Moshnikov², Andrey N Aleshin¹

Affiliations

¹ Ioffe Institute, 26 Politekhnicheskaya, 194021 Saint Petersburg, Russia.
² Faculty of Electronics, Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University LETI, Ul. Professora Popova 5, 197022 Saint Petersburg, Russia.
³ Almazov National Medical Research Centre, 2 Akkuratova Street, 197341 Saint Petersburg, Russia.
⁴ Center for Photonics and 2D Materials, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 9 Institutskiy Lane, 141701 Dolgoprudny, Russia.

Abstract

Cqd/pedot: PSS composites were prepared via the hydrothermal method from glucose carbon quantum dots (CQDs) and an aqueous solution of PEDOT:PSS conducting polymer and their electrical and optical properties were investigated. The morphology and structure of these samples were investigated by AFM, SEM, EDX, and EBSD. It was found that the CQDs and CQD/PEDOT:PSS composites had a globular structure with globule sizes of ~50-300 nm depending on the concentration of PEDOT:PSS in these composites. The temperature dependence of the resistivity was obtained for the CQD/PEDOT:PSS (3%, 5%, 50%) composites, which had a weak activation character. The charge transport mechanism was discussed. The dependence of the resistivity on the storage time of the CQD/PEDOT:PSS (3%, 5%, 50%) composites and pure PEDOT:PSS was obtained. It was noted that mixing CQDs with PEDOT:PSS allowed us to obtain better electrical and optical properties than pure CQDs.

Cqd/pedot: PSS (3%, 5%, 50%) composites are more conductive composites than pure CQDs, and the absorbance spectra of CQD/PEDOT:PSS composites are a synergistic effect of interaction between CQDs and PEDOT:PSS. We also note the better stability of the CQD/PEDOT:PSS (50%) composite than the pure PEDOT:PSS film.

Cqd/pedot: PSS (50%) composite is promising for use as stable hole transport layers in devices of flexible organic electronics.

Keywords: carbon quantum dots; composite films; conductive polymers; electrical conductivity.

MeSH terms

Carbon*
Electric Conductivity
Electricity
Polymers
Quantum Dots*

Substances

Carbon
Polymers

Grants and funding

The work was partially supported by the federal academic leadership program “Priority 2030” and the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI” project SP/POPR-1 for AFM and PL research, and was partially supported by the strategic academic leadership program “Priority 2030” (Agreement 075-02-2021-1316 30.09.2021) for SEM, EDX, and EBSD research.