Patterning two-dimensional free-standing surfaces with mesoporous conducting polymers.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 26577914.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms9817 and PMC identifier 4660032.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The ability to pattern functional moieties with well-defined architectures is highly important in material science, nanotechnology and bioengineering. Although two-dimensional surfaces can serve as attractive platforms, direct patterning them in solution with regular arrays remains a major challenge. Here we develop a versatile route to pattern two-dimensional free-standing surfaces in a controlled manner assisted by monomicelle close-packing assembly of block copolymers, which is unambiguously revealed by direct visual observation. This strategy allows for bottom-up patterning of polypyrrole and polyaniline with adjustable mesopores on various functional free-standing surfaces, including two-dimensional graphene, molybdenum sulfide, titania nanosheets and even on one-dimensional carbon nanotubes. As exemplified by graphene oxide-based mesoporous polypyrrole nanosheets, the unique sandwich structure with adjustable pore sizes (5-20 nm) and thickness (35-45 nm) as well as enlarged specific surface area (85 m(2) g(-1)) provides excellent specific capacitance and rate performance for supercapacitors. Therefore, this approach will shed light on developing solution-based soft patterning of given interfaces towards bespoke functions.