Molecular control in nanostructured films of carbon nanotubes

Abstract

This one-year project is aimed at fabricating and characterizing Langmuir-Blodgett, Langmuir-Schaefer and other thin films made with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). These could then be used in organic field-effect (OFET) and other electronic devices. The primary goal is to control the organization of CNTs in the films in order to optimize device performance. Experimentally this will be achieved by testing a variety of experimental conditions for the film fabrication, with the films being characterized with UV-vis., FTIR and Raman spectroscopies, in addition to atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Films will be deposited on various types of substrates, including interdigitated gold electrodes with which current-voltage measurements will be performed to determine the electrical conductivity. This characterization process should provide feedback with regard to the molecular organization in the films and devices, thus allowing for optimization of the OFET electrical characteristics, and device properties such as efficiency and lifetime. The research activities should allow the candidate to be integrated into the NASCENCE (Nanoscale Engineering for Novel Computation using Evolution) Project, an ambitious European research activity which aims to use computer controlled manipulation of physical systems of nanoscale self-assembled components to steer them towards doing useful computation and information processing. (AU)