Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is proposed as a nonionic surfactant for the efficient exfoliation of graphite in thin flakes of few-layer graphene and the subsequent preparation of transparent and conducting thin films. Parameters such as the type of RNA used and the size of starting graphite flakes are demonstrated to be essential for obtaining RNA-graphene thin films of good quality. A model explaining the exfoliation of graphene by RNA in water is suggested. A number of post- and predeposition treatments (including thermal annealing, functionalization of the films, and the preoxidation of graphite) are critical to improve the performance of graphene-RNA nanocomposites as transparent conductors. The study establishes an ideal link between RNA and graphene, the fundamental building blocks for nanobiology and carbon-based nanotechnology.

6-Oxoverdazyl radical polymers were synthesized and their tunable redox properties studied in solution and the solid-state.

We present a review of the recent progresses in solution processing graphene thin films and highlight some of the uses of graphene and graphene thin films in the construction of organic solar cells. We demonstrate a simple phenomenological model to describe the relationship between sheet conductivity and transmittance in graphene films with good agreement to all of the data found in the literature. We show that graphene thin films have been proven useful in the construction and improvement of organic solar cells not only as a replacement electrode, but also as an active acceptor material, or as a counter electrode when integrated into a conducting polymer matrix.

Graphene–polymer composites show great promise as thermal interface materials. We here offer a deeper understanding of their thermal properties using contactless photothermal deflection techniques.

We report for the first time the fabrication of nanocomposite hole-blocking layers consisting of poly-3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene:poly-styrene-sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) thin films incorporating networks of gold nanoparticles assembled from Au144(SCH2CH2Ph)60, a molecular gold precursor. These thin films can be prepared reproducibly on indium tin oxide by spinning on it Au144(SCH2CH2Ph)60 solutions in chlorobenzene, annealing the resulting thin film at 400 °C, and subsequently spinning PEDOT:PSS on top. The use of our nanocomposite hole-blocking layers for enhancing the photoconversion efficiency of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells is demonstrated. By varying the concentration of Au144(SCH2CH2Ph)60 in the starting solution and the annealing time, different gold nanostructures were obtained ranging from individual gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to tessellated networks of gold nanostructures (Tess-AuNPs). Improvement in organic solar cell efficiencies up to 10% relative to a reference cell is demonstrated with Tess-AuNPs embedded in PEDOT:PSS.

We investigated the physical processes underlying the degradation of poly(3-hexyl-thiophene):phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) photovoltaics under harsh environmental conditions during a 70-70-70 test (70% humidity at 70 °C from 0 to 70 h) using a variety of analytical techniques aimed at monitoring moisture incorporation. While the total oxygen content did not significantly increase during the test, a limited fraction of oxygen forms paramagnetic centers in P3HT, PCBM and, more limitedly, P3HT:PCBM heterojunctions. A strong correlation exists between the density of paramagnetic centers and the decay in the AM 1.5 photoconversion efficiency of the devices.

Self-assembly of copper nanoparticle (Cu-np) superlattices on graphene thin films is demonstrated. These superlattices show visible light evanescent waveguiding properties.

Photothermal deflection (PTD) has been frequently utilized to measure the thermal properties of thin solid films on a substrate. In the models commonly used to interpret PTD data, the substrate is assumed to be an ideal thermal insulator. This assumption poses important restrictions on the reliability of these thermal measurements and limits the possibility to use PTD for also measuring the specific heat of the samples. Simultaneous knowledge of specific heat and thermal diffusivity is necessary to determine the thermal conductivity of thin solid films. In this work, we calculated the phase and amplitude of the PTD signal at the two opposites sides (film-side and substrate-side) of a thin-film substrate system. We find that, on both sides, the phases of the PTD signal primarily depend on the thermal diffusivity of the thin film, while the amplitudes primarily depend on the specific heat. By using the phases and amplitudes at the two sides, we show that the accuracy of thermal conductivity measurements by PTD can be dramatically improved. We validate our theoretical model by measuring, in a scanning PTD apparatus, the thermal properties of gold thin films, which are in excellent agreement with, and improve on, existing data from the literature.