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Synfacts 2007(3): 0263-0263  
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-968207
Synthesis of Materials and Unnatural Products
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Nanotube Photoconductors

Contributor(s): Timothy M. Swager, Zhihua Chen
Y. Yamamoto, T. Fukushima*, Y. Suna, N. Ishii, A. Saeki, S. Seki, S. Tagawa, M. Taniguchi, T. Kawai, T. Aida*
Japan Science and Technology Agency, Tokyo, The University of Tokyo, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Ibaraki and Osaka University, Japan
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Publication History

Publication Date:
20 February 2007 (online)

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Significance

This work describes a cleverly designed hexabenzocoronene trinitrofluorenone (HBC-TNF) supramolecular structure 1, which could self-assemble into nanotubes when its dilute THF solution was exposed to methanol vapor. The nanotubes are 16 nanometers in diameter and several micrometers long, with 3-nm-thick walls consisting of a segregated HBC region sandwiched between two TNF layers, as evidenced by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction studies. More interestingly, these hollow nanotubes demonstrated a significant photoconductive response when illuminated, showing a current 104 times greater than in the dark.