Advanced syntheses and microfabrications of conjugated polymers, C60-containing polymers and carbon nanotubes for optoelectronic applications

Abstract

During the past 20 years or so, various conjugated polymers have been synthesised with unusual electrical, magnetic, and optical properties owing to the substantial π-electron delocalization along their backbones. Having a conjugated all-carbon structure, coupled with their unusual molecular symmetries, fullerenes and carbon nanotubes have recently been shown to also possess interesting optoelectronic properties to be attractive for many potential applications. The scope for using conjugated polymers, fullerenes, and carbon nanotubes in practical devices, however, has been hampered by the poor processability intrinsically associated with the delocalized conjugated structure. Processable forms of conjugated polymers, fullerenes, and carbon nanotubes are highly desirable and microfabrication of these processable materials into certain ordered structures (e.g. in aligned/patterned forms) is often a key prerequisite for most optoelectronic applications including in non-linear optical, organic light-emitting, and electron emitting devices. In this article, the progress towards advanced synthesis of processable conjugated polymers, fullerene (C60)-containing polymers, and carbon nanotubes is reviewed, and a large number of useful methods for microfabrication of them into oriented/patterned structures are discussed. Recent developments in the field have clearly indicated that the use of various advanced synthetic and microfabricating methods could lead to a wide range of new materials with exotic physiochemical properties and optoelectronic devices of novel features. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.