Graphene Oxide Langmuir Blodgett (GO-LB) Functional Thin Films

EPSRC：努夫·扎格卢尔：EP/L016648/1共轭聚合物有可能提供可用于可穿戴电子产品的柔性和轻质导体和半导体。聚合物基材料因其固有的柔韧性和电子可调谐性等吸引人的特性而备受人们的青睐。在这些聚合物中，聚苯胺(PANI)特别独特，因为它的掺杂水平很容易通过简单的氧化还原过程控制，或者分别通过添加酸或碱来进行掺杂和脱掺杂过程。当采用纳米结构时，聚苯胺(如纳米线、纳米纤维和纳米棒)由于其高比表面积体积比而显示出更好的性能。PANI与其环境之间的界面面积显著增加，这在传感器等应用中尤其有用。与块状PANI相比，纳米结构PANI具有更快的响应时间和更高的灵敏度，这是因为它的表面积增加了，并且目标分子可以在低渗透深度被检测到。然而，由于缺乏简单可靠的方法来制备高质量的导电和半导体聚合物纳米结构和薄膜，这些特性还没有得到广泛的开发。自20世纪20年代以来被公认为对薄膜沉积提供显著控制的技术之一是朗缪尔-布洛杰特(LB)方法，它可以提供一分子层厚的薄膜。这项技术已被越来越多地用于在各种衬底上沉积各种纳米材料，包括PANI、PANI纳米复合材料、石墨烯和氧化石墨烯。这些材料具有广泛的应用潜力，包括柔性和/或透明的电子设备。该项目的目的是利用滑铁卢大学的朗缪尔·布洛杰特(LB)沉积技术，形成均匀的PANI纳米复合层的薄膜层。薄膜PANI纳米纤维的成功生产将使激光写入研究以及简单的原理证明柔性传感器设备的制造和测试成为可能。这将有助于开发一种既简单又廉价的用于产生高分辨率特征的直接图案化方法，并实现一种新型的聚合物印刷设备和软机器人。

EPSRC : Nouf Zaghloul : EP/L016648/1Conjugated polymers can potentially provide flexible and lightweight conductors and semiconductors that can be used in wearable electronics. Polymer-based materials are highly desirable due to their attractive properties such as intrinsic flexibility and electronic tunability. Among these polymers, polyaniline (PAni) is particularly unique due to its readily controlled doping level by simple redox processes, or the addition of acid or base for doping and de-doping processes, respectively. When nanostructured, PAni (such as nanowires, nanofibers, and nanorods) displays enhanced performance due to its high surface area to volume ratio. The interfacial area between the PAni and its environment is significantly increased, and this is particularly useful in applications such as sensors. Compared to its bulk form, nanostructured PAni displays faster response time and improved sensitivity due to the increased surface area, and target molecules can be sensed at low penetration depths. However, due to the lack of facile and reliable methods for making high-quality conducting and semiconducting polymer nanostructures and thin films, these properties have not yet been widely exploited.One of the techniques recognised as providing significant control for film deposition since the 1920s is the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method, which can deliver films that are one molecular layer thick. This technique has been increasingly used to deposit various nanomaterials including PAni, PAni nanocomposites, graphene, and graphene oxide onto a wide array of substrates. These materials have potential use in a broad range of applications, including flexible and/or transparent electronic devices. The aim of this project is to utilize the Langmuir Blodgett (LB) deposition technique at the University of Waterloo to form uniform thin films layers of PAni nanocomposites layers. Successful production of thin film PAni nanofibers will allow research into laser writing and the fabrication and testing of simple proof-of-principle flexible sensor devices. This will facilitate the development of a direct patterning method for producing high-resolution features, that is both simple and inexpensive, and, realization of a new class of polymer printed devices and soft robotics.