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

共轭聚合物可以提供灵活轻便的导体和半导体，可用于可穿戴电子产品。聚合物基材料由于其固有的柔韧性和电子可调性等吸引人的特性而备受青睐。在这些聚合物中，聚苯胺（PAni）尤其独特，因为它易于通过简单的氧化还原过程或分别添加酸或碱进行掺杂和脱掺杂过程来控制掺杂水平。当采用纳米结构时，聚苯胺（如纳米线、纳米纤维和纳米棒）由于其高表面积体积比而显示出增强的性能。聚苯胺与其环境之间的界面面积显著增加，这在传感器等应用中特别有用。与本体相比，纳米结构的聚苯胺由于表面积的增加，具有更快的响应时间和更高的灵敏度，并且可以在低穿透深度下检测目标分子。然而，由于缺乏简单可靠的方法来制造高质量的导电和半导体聚合物纳米结构和薄膜，这些特性尚未得到广泛利用。自20世纪20年代以来，Langmuir-Blodgett （LB）方法被认为是对薄膜沉积提供重要控制的技术之一，它可以提供一个分子层厚的薄膜。该技术已越来越多地用于沉积各种纳米材料，包括聚苯胺、聚苯胺纳米复合材料、石墨烯和氧化石墨烯到各种衬底上。这些材料具有广泛的潜在用途，包括柔性和/或透明电子设备。该项目的目的是利用滑铁卢大学的Langmuir Blodgett （LB）沉积技术，形成均匀的聚苯胺纳米复合材料薄膜层。薄膜聚苯胺纳米纤维的成功生产将使激光书写的研究和简单的原理验证柔性传感器设备的制造和测试成为可能。这将促进直接图像化方法的发展，以产生高分辨率的特征，既简单又便宜，并实现新型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.