title: Direct anisotropic growth of CdS nanocrystals in thermotropic liquid crystal templates for heterojunction optoelectronics.
abstract: The direct growth of CdS nanocrystals in functional solid-state thermotropic liquid crystal (LC) small molecules and a conjugated LC polymer by in situ thermal decomposition of a single-source cadmium xanthate precursor to fabricate LC/CdS hybrid nanocomposites is described. The influence of thermal annealing temperature of the LC/CdS precursors upon the nanomorphology, photophysics, and optoelectronic properties of the LC/CdS nanocomposites is systematically studied. Steady-state PL and ultrafast emission dynamics studies show that the charge-transfer rates are strongly dependent on the thermal annealing temperature. Notably, annealing at liquid-crystal state temperature promotes a more organized nanomorphology of the LC/CdS nanocomposites with improved photophysics and optoelectronic properties. The results confirm that thermotropic LCs can be ideal candidates as organization templates for the control of organic/inorganic hybrid nanocomposites at the nanoscale level. The results also demonstrate that in situ growth of semiconducting nanocrystals in thermotropic LCs is a versatile route to hybrid organic/inorganic nanocomposites and optoelectronic devices.
authors: Institute of Polymers, Department of Chemistry, Nanchang University, 999 Xuefu Avenue, Nanchang 330031 (P.R. China).
authors: Kai
authors: K
authors: Yuan
authors: Lie
authors: L
authors: Chen
authors: Yiwang
authors: Y
authors: Chen
keywords: crystal growth; liquid crystals; nanostructures; semiconductors; thin films