In Situ Modification of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes with Polythiophene-Based Conjugated Polymer for Information Storage

Wei Li; Xiaoyang Wang; Bin Zhang; Yu Chen

doi:10.3390/ma16030908

In Situ Modification of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes with Polythiophene-Based Conjugated Polymer for Information Storage

Materials (Basel). 2023 Jan 18;16(3):908. doi: 10.3390/ma16030908.

Authors

Wei Li¹, Xiaoyang Wang², Bin Zhang¹, Yu Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Joint International Research Laboratory of Precision Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
² Guangxi Key Laboratory of Information Material, Engineering Research Center of Electronic Information Materials and Devices, School of Material Science and Engineering, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China.

Abstract

One-dimensional multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) have unique electrical properties, but they are not solution-processable, which severely limits their applications in microelectronic devices. Therefore, it is of great significance to improve the solubility of MWNTs and endow them with new functions by chemical modification. In this work, MWNTs were in situ functionalized with poly[(1,4-diethynyl-benzene)-alt-(3-hexylthiophene)] (PDHT) via Sonogashira-Hagihara polymerization. The obtained material PDHT-g-MWNTs was soluble in conventional organic solvents. By sandwiching a PDHT-g-MWNTs film between Al and ITO electrodes, the fabricated Al/PDHT-g-MWNTs/ITO electronic device exhibited nonvolatile rewritable memory behavior, with highly symmetrical turn-on/off voltages, a retention time of over 10⁴ s, and durability for 200 switching cycles. These findings provide important insights into the development of carbon nanotube-based materials for information storage.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes; information storage; polymer memory; surface modification.

Abstract

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