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Title: Long-Range Order in Nanocrystal Assemblies Determines Charge Transport of Films

Abstract

Self-assembly of semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) into two-dimensional patterns or three-dimensional (2-3D) superstructures has emerged as a promising low-cost route to generate thin-film transistors and solar cells with superior charge transport because of enhanced electronic coupling between the NCs. Here, we show that lead sulfide (PbS) NCs solids featuring either short-range (disordered glassy solids, GSs) or long-range (superlattices, SLs) packing order are obtained solely by controlling deposition conditions of colloidal solution of NCs. In this study, we demonstrate the use of the evaporation-driven self-assembly method results in PbS NC SL structures that are observed over an area of 1 mm × 100 μm, with long-range translational order of up to 100 nm. A number of ordered domains appear to have nucleated simultaneously and grown together over the whole area, imparting a polycrystalline texture to the 3D SL films. By contrast, a conventional, optimized spin-coating deposition method results in PbS NC glassy films with no translational symmetry and much shorter-range packing order in agreement with state-of-the-art reports. Further, we investigate the electronic properties of both SL and GS films, using a field-effect transistor configuration as a test platform. The long-range ordering of the PbS NCs into SLs leads to semiconducting NC-based solids,more » the mobility (μ) of which is 3 orders of magnitude higher than that of the disordered GSs. Moreover, although spin-cast GSs of PbS NCs have weak ambipolar behavior with limited gate tunability, SLs of PbS NCs show a clear p-type behavior with significantly higher conductivities.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università di Pisa, Via G. Caruso 16, 56111 Pisa, Italy
  2. Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 67 Cyclotron Road, 94720 Berkeley, United States
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1371598
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1376694; OSTI ID: 1630601
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
ACS Omega
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: ACS Omega Journal Volume: 2 Journal Issue: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-1343
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; crystal structure; electric transport processes and properties; microstructure; nanocrystals; order; phase; quantum dots; self-assembly; solid state electrochemistry; thin films; solid state

Citation Formats

Sainato, Michela, Shevitski, Brian, Sahu, Ayaskanta, Forster, Jason D., Aloni, Shaul, Barillaro, Giuseppe, and Urban, Jeffrey J. Long-Range Order in Nanocrystal Assemblies Determines Charge Transport of Films. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1021/acsomega.7b00433.
Sainato, Michela, Shevitski, Brian, Sahu, Ayaskanta, Forster, Jason D., Aloni, Shaul, Barillaro, Giuseppe, & Urban, Jeffrey J. Long-Range Order in Nanocrystal Assemblies Determines Charge Transport of Films. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.7b00433
Sainato, Michela, Shevitski, Brian, Sahu, Ayaskanta, Forster, Jason D., Aloni, Shaul, Barillaro, Giuseppe, and Urban, Jeffrey J. Tue . "Long-Range Order in Nanocrystal Assemblies Determines Charge Transport of Films". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.7b00433.
@article{osti_1371598,
title = {Long-Range Order in Nanocrystal Assemblies Determines Charge Transport of Films},
author = {Sainato, Michela and Shevitski, Brian and Sahu, Ayaskanta and Forster, Jason D. and Aloni, Shaul and Barillaro, Giuseppe and Urban, Jeffrey J.},
abstractNote = {Self-assembly of semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) into two-dimensional patterns or three-dimensional (2-3D) superstructures has emerged as a promising low-cost route to generate thin-film transistors and solar cells with superior charge transport because of enhanced electronic coupling between the NCs. Here, we show that lead sulfide (PbS) NCs solids featuring either short-range (disordered glassy solids, GSs) or long-range (superlattices, SLs) packing order are obtained solely by controlling deposition conditions of colloidal solution of NCs. In this study, we demonstrate the use of the evaporation-driven self-assembly method results in PbS NC SL structures that are observed over an area of 1 mm × 100 μm, with long-range translational order of up to 100 nm. A number of ordered domains appear to have nucleated simultaneously and grown together over the whole area, imparting a polycrystalline texture to the 3D SL films. By contrast, a conventional, optimized spin-coating deposition method results in PbS NC glassy films with no translational symmetry and much shorter-range packing order in agreement with state-of-the-art reports. Further, we investigate the electronic properties of both SL and GS films, using a field-effect transistor configuration as a test platform. The long-range ordering of the PbS NCs into SLs leads to semiconducting NC-based solids, the mobility (μ) of which is 3 orders of magnitude higher than that of the disordered GSs. Moreover, although spin-cast GSs of PbS NCs have weak ambipolar behavior with limited gate tunability, SLs of PbS NCs show a clear p-type behavior with significantly higher conductivities.},
doi = {10.1021/acsomega.7b00433},
journal = {ACS Omega},
number = 7,
volume = 2,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Tue Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.7b00433

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Cited by: 11 works
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