Langmuir, Vol.31, No.4, 1581-1587, 2015
Low-Temperature Fabrication of Alkali Metal-Organic Charge Transfer Complexes on Cotton Textile for Optoelectronics and Gas Sensing
A generalized low-temperature approach for fabricating high aspect ratio nanorod arrays of alkali metal-TCNQ (7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane) charge transfer complexes at 140 degrees C is demonstrated. This facile approach overcomes the current limitation associated with fabrication of alkali metal-TCNQ complexes that are based on physical vapor deposition processes and typically require an excess of 800 degrees C. The compatibility of soft substrates with the proposed low-temperature route allows direct fabrication of NaTCNQ and LiTCNQ nanoarrays on individual cotton threads interwoven within the 3D matrix of textiles. The applicability of these textile-supported TCNQ-based organic charge transfer complexes toward optoelectronics and gas sensing applications is established.