Fullerene nanowires as a versatile platform for organic electronics

Maeyoshi, Yuta*; Saeki, Akinori*; Suwa, Shotaro*; Omichi, Masaaki*; Marui, Hiromi*; Asano, Atsushi*; Tsukuda, Satoshi*; Sugimoto, Masaki; Kishimura, Akihiro*; Kataoka, Kazunori*; Seki, Shuhei*

The development of organic semiconducting nanowires that act as charge carrier transport pathways in flexible and lightweight nano-electronics is a major scientific challenge. We report on the fabrication of fullerene nanowires that is universally applicable to its derivatives (pristine C, methanofullerenes of C and C, and indene C bis-adduct). Nanowires with radii of 811 nm were formed via a chain polymerization reaction induced by a high-energy ion beam. Fabrication of a poly(3-hexylthiophene): [6,6]-phenyl C butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic cell including PCBM nanowires with precisely-controlled length and density demonstrates how application of this methodology can improve the power conversion efficiency of these inverted cells.