Low-dimensional boundaries between phases and domains in organic thin films are important in charge transport and recombination. Here, fluctuations of interfacial boundaries in an organic thin film, acridine-9-carboxylic acid (ACA) on Ag(111), have been visualized in real time, and measured quantitatively, using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. The boundaries fluctuate via molecular exchange with exchange time constants of 10-30 ms at room temperature, yielding length mode fluctuations that should yield characteristic f-1/2 signatures for frequencies less than ~100 Hz. Although ACA has highly anisotropic intermolecular interactions, it forms islands that are compact in shape with crystallographically distinct boundaries that have essentially identical thermodynamic and kinetic properties . The physical basis of the modified symmetry is shown to arise from significantly different substrate interactions induced by alternating orientations of successive molecules in the condensed phase. Incorporating this additional set of interactions in a lattice gas model leads to effective multi-component behavior, as in the Blume-Emery-Griffiths (BEG) model, and can straightforwardly reproduce the experimentally observed isotropic behavior. The general multi-component description allows the domain shapes and boundary fluctuations to be tuned from isotropic to highly anisotropic in terms of the balance between intermolecular interactions and molecule-substrate interactions. Key words: Organic thin film, fluctuations, STM, molecular interactions, diffusion kinetics, phase coexistence
Very thin (1.2-2.5nm) self-assembled organic dielectric monolayers have been integrated into organic thin-film diode to achieve electrical characteristics. These dielectrics are fabricated by self-assembling deposition, resulting in smooth, strongly adherent, thermally stable, organosiloxane thin films having interesting electrical capacitances (around 150 nF cm-2 at -3V) and insulating properties (leakage current densities around 10-5 A cm2 at -1V).
We develop a model describing the electrochemical conversion of an organic semiconductor (specifically, the active material in a light-emitting electrochemical cell) from the undoped non-conducting state to the doped conducting state. The model takes into account both strongly concentration-dependent mobility and diffusion for the electronic charge carriers and the Nernst equation in the doped conducting regions. It is demonstrated that the experimentally observed doping front progression in light-emitting electrochemical cells can be accurately described with this model.
We show that the thermal stability of thin films of the organic semiconductor diindenoperylene (DIP) can be strongly enhanced by aluminum oxide capping layers. By thermal desorption spectroscopy and in-situ X-ray diffraction we demonstrate that organic films do not only stay on the substrate, but even remain crystalline up to 460C, i.e. 270 deg. above their desorption point for uncapped films (190C). We argue that this strong enhancement of the thermal stability compared to uncapped and also metal-capped organic layers is related to the very weak diffusion of aluminum oxide and the structurall…
In this paper, the dynamics of bias stress phenomenon in Sexithiophene (T6) Field Effect Transistors (FETs) has been investigated. T6 FETs have been fabricated by vacuum depositing films with thickness from 10 nm to 130 nm on Si/SiO2 substrates. After the T6 film structural analysis by X-Ray diffraction and the FET electrical investigation focused on carrier mobility evaluation, bias stress instability parameters have been estimated and discussed in the context of existing models. By increasing the film thickness, a clear correlation between the stress parameters and the structural properties …
Doped films of organic small molecules are investigated with respect to their thermoelectric properties. A variety of hosts and dopants, for both n and p-doping, are compared. C$_{60}$ n-doped by Cr$_2$(hpp)$_4$ or o-MeO-DMBI-I are found to be the most promising material systems with a maximum of ZT$_\text{M}$ = 0.069 at T$_\text{M}$ = 40°C, assuming a doping-independent thermal conductivity due to phonon-based heat transport. This value is 16% of the current record reported for optimized devices employing the doped polymer PEDOT:PSS.
Using combined magnetometry and ferromagnetic resonance studies, it is shown that introduction of a hydrocarbon cover layer leads to an increase of the contribution of the surface anisotropy to the effective magnetic anisotropy energy of hexagonal close-packed 0001 cobalt films, largely enhancing the perpendicular anisotropy. Due to a weak electronic interaction of the organic molecules with the Co atoms, an increase of surface anisotropy could be explained by the presence of an electric field at the organic-material/Co interface and by modification of surface atoms charge configuration.
In this communication we investigate two dyes N,N' -dioctadecyl thiacyanine perchlorate (NK) and octadecyl rhodamine B chloride (RhB) in Langmuir and Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films with or with out a synthetic clay laponite. Observed changes in isotherms of RhB in absence and presence of nano-clay platelets indicate the incorporation of clay platelets onto RhB-clay hybrid films. AFM image confirms the incorporation of clay in hybrid films. FRET was observed in clay dispersion and LB films with and without clay. Efficiency of energy transfer was maximum in LB films with clay.
The conductivity of organic semiconductors is measured {\it in-situ} and continuously with a bottom contact configuration, as a function of film thickness at various gate voltages. The depletion layer thickness can be directly determined as a shift of the threshold thickness at which electric current began to flow. The {\it in-situ} and continuous measurement can also determine qualitatively the accumulation layer thickness together with the distribution function of injected carriers. The accumulation layer thickness is a few mono layers, and it does not depend on gate voltages, rather depends…
Owing to prospective energy-efficient and environmentally benign applications, organic ferroelectric materials are useful and necessary alternative to inorganic ferroelectrics. Although the first discovered ferroelectric, Rochelle salt, was a salt of an organic compound, organic ferroelectrics have not been as abundant as the inorganic ones. Further, the small polarization values in the organic systems discovered so far have been a demotivating factor for their applications. However, scientific interest and activities surrounding such materials, for the purpose of fundamental understanding and…
A printing process for high-resolution transfer of all components for organic electronic devices on plastic substrates has been developed and demonstrated for pentacene (Pn), poly (3-hexylthiophene) and carbon nanotube (CNT) thin-film transistors (TFTs). The nanotransfer printing process allows fabrication of an entire device without exposing any component to incompatible processes and with reduced need for special chemical preparation of transfer or device substrates. Devices on plastic substrates include a Pn TFT with a saturation, field-effect mobility of 0.09 cm^2 (Vs)^-1 and on/off ratio …
The nucleation mechanisms during solution deposition of organic semiconductor thin films determine the grain morphology and may influence the crystalline packing in some cases. Here, in-situ optical spectromicroscopy in reflection mode is used to study the growth mechanisms and thermal stability of 6,13-bis(trisopropylsilylethynyl)-pentacene thin films. The results show that the films form in a supersaturated state before transforming to a solid film. Molecular aggregates corresponding to subcritical nuclei in the crystallization process are inferred from optical spectroscopy measurements of t…
We measure the complex impedance between source/drain electrodes and the gate electrode of a pentacene thin-film transistor (TFT) at frequencies 50 Hz < omega/2pi < 20 kHz. Modeling the TFT as a distributed RC network (RC transmission line), we find that the data cannot be explained by a model including only a real, frequency-independent sheet conductivity. Instead, we use the RC transmission line model to extract the frequency-dependent complex sheet conductivity sigma(omega) = sigma'(omega) + jsigma"(omega) of the pentacene film. At high frequencies, sigma(omega) increases with frequency, si…
Topological insulator (TI) materials such as Bi2Te3 and Bi2Se3 have attracted strong recent interests. Large scale, high quality TI thin films are important for developing TI-based device applications. In this work, structural and electronic properties of Bi2Te3 thin films deposited by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on GaAs (001) substrates were characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), and electronic transport measurements. The characteristic topological surface states (SS) with a single Dirac cone have b…
We report the systematic studies of spin current transport and relaxation mechanism in highly doped organic polymer film. In this study, we have determined spin diffusion length (SDL), spin lifetime, and spin diffusion constant by using different experimental techniques. The spin lifetime estimated from the electron paramagnetic resonance experiment is much shorter than the previous expectation beyond the experimental ambiguity. This suggests that significantly large spin diffusion constant, which is reasonably explained by the hopping transport mechanism in degenerate semiconductors, exists i…
The electronic properties of hybrid organic-inorganic semiconductor interfaces depend strongly on the alignment of the electronic carrier levels in the organic/inorganic components. In the present work, we address this energy level alignment from first principles theory for two paradigmatic organic-inorganic semiconductor interfaces, the singlet fission materials tetracene and pentacene on H/Si(111), using all-electron hybrid density functional theory. For isolated tetracene on H/Si(111), a type I-like heterojunction (lowest-energy electron and hole states on Si) is found. For isolated pentace…
Monte Carlo simulation was carried out to understand the influence of morphological inhomogeneity on carrier diffusion in organic thin films. The morphological inhomogeneity was considered in the simulation by incorporating the regions of low energetic disorder in a host lattice of high energetic disorder which decreases the overall energetic disorder of the system. For the homogeneous films, the carrier diffusion was found to decrease upon decreasing the energetic disorder. In contrast to this, in the case of inhomogeneous films the carrier diffusion enhanced upon decreasing the overall energ…
We report an in-situ microbeam grazing incidence X-ray scattering study of 2,7-dioctyl[1]benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene (C$_8$-BTBT) organic semiconductor thin film deposition by hollow pen writing. Multiple transient phases are observed during the crystallization for substrate temperatures up to $\approx$93$^\circ$C. The layered smectic liquid-crystalline phase of C$_8$-BTBT initially forms and preceedes inter-layer ordering, followed by a transient crystalline phase for temperature $>$60$^\circ$C, and ultimately the stable phase. Based on these results, we demonstrate a method to produc…
The influence of film morphology induced carrier diffusion on the broadening of the time-of-flight transient photo-current pulse was investigated using Monte Carlo simulation in organic thin films. Assuming the Gaussian Disorder Model for the charge transport the simulation of the time-of-flight photo-current pulse shape was carried out for homogeneous and inhomogeneous films by varying the overall energetic disorder of the system. In the case of homogeneous system, the value of the tail broadening parameter (W) of the photocurrent pulse is found to decrease upon decreasing the energetic disor…
The electronic excitation spectra of undoped, and potassium as well as calcium doped phenantrene-type hydrocarbons have been investigated using electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) in transmission. In the undoped materials, the lowest energy excitations are excitons with a relatively high binding energy. These excitons also are rather localized as revealed by their vanishing dispersion. Upon doping, new low energy excitation features appear in the former gaps of the materials under investigation. In K$_3$picene and K$_3$chrysene they are characterized by a negative dispersion while in Ca$_…
Singlet fission (SF), an exciton multiplication process occurring in organic semiconductors, offers a way to break the Shockley-Queisser limit in single-bandgap photovoltaics (PV). If the triplet excitons generated by SF can be transferred to inorganic quantum dots (QDs), where they radiatively recombine, SF based photon multiplication is achieved, converting a single high-energy photon into two low-energy photons. Such a SF photon multiplication film (SF-PMF) could raise the efficiency of the best Si-PV from 26.7% to 32.5%. But a precise nanoscale morphology is required within such a film con…
The exciton transport in the prototypical organic semiconductor Di-Indeno-Perylene (DIP) has been investigated by means of photoluminescence (PL) quenching and interpreted by an advanced exciton diffusion model including interference effects, quencher penetration as well as non-perfect exciton quenching. X-ray difraction revealed a correlation between the exciton diffusion length of about 90 nm and the structural coherence length of the DIP layers. Temperature dependent studies in a range of 5 - 300 K indicated an incoherent exciton transport above 80 K at activation energies of 10 - 20 meV re…
The discovery of stable room temperature ferroelectricity in Croconic Acid, an organic ferroelectric material, with polarization values on par with those found in inorganic ferroelectric materials and highest among organic ferroelectric materials, has opened up possibilities to realize myriads of nano-electronic and spintronic devices based on organic ferroelectrics. Such possibilities require an adequate understanding of the ferroelectric properties of Croconic Acid grown on surfaces that are commonly employed in device fabrication. While several macroscopic studies on relatively larger cryst…
In addition to electronic polarization or charge redistribution, the shape of neutral conjugated molecules yields position-dependent ionization potentials and electron affinities in organic thin films. Self-consistent I(n) and A(n) are computed in each layer n of 10-layer films of prototypical organics on a metal. The depth dependence of I(n) is discussed at surfaces of anthracene, C60 and PTCDA. The shape contribution can be substantial, up to 0.5 eV, and comes primarily from charge-quadrupole interactions.
Crystallization is a key for ferroelectricity which is a collective behavior of microscopic electric dipoles. On the other hand, uncontrolled crystallization leads to uneven morphology and random crystal orientations, which undermines the application potential of ferroelectric thin films. In this work, we introduce a film fabrication method of low-temperature physical vapor deposition followed by restrained crystallization, with electrical properties monitored in real-time by in situ measurements. This method was adopted to fabricate films of 2-methylbenzimidazole (MBI), whose molecule crystal…
In recent years, optical and electronic properties of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have increasingly shifted into the focus of interest of the scientific community. Here, we discuss a strategy for conveniently tuning these properties through electrostatic design. More specifically, based on quantum-mechanical simulations, we suggest an approach for creating a gradient of the electrostatic potential within a MOF thin film exploiting collective electrostatic effects. With a suitable orientation of the polar apical linkers, the resulting non-centrosymmetric packing results in an energy stairca…
Encapsulation of electronic devices based on organic materials that are prone to degradation even under normal atmospheric conditions with hermetic barriers is crucial for increasing their lifetime. A challenge is to develop 'ultrabarriers' that are impermeable, flexible, and preferably transparent. Another important requirement is that they must be compatible with organic electronics fabrication schemes (i.e. must be solution processable, deposited at room temperature and be chemically inert). Here, we report lifetime increase of 1,300 hours for poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) films encapsulate…
The thesis focuses on study of optical and photovoltaic properties of iso-type and aniso-type heterostructures based on photosensitive layers of organic semiconductors. The primary attention has been paid on determination of optimal conditions for preparation of organic thin-film structures of methyl substituted perylene pigment, hexathiopentacene and SnCl2 phthalocyanine. These structures are perspective for fabrication of photosensitive heterostructures and can be used for development of effective photoconverters of solar energy. The influence of annealing and substrate temperature during th…
The pioneering experiments of Karl H. Drexhage explained the classical interaction of light with matter and the modification of the decay rates of an emitter.1 Here, we tried to mimic these experiments in a slightly different configuration and measured the electron mobility of a thin film semiconductor from weak to strong coupling regime. Perylene diimide (organic semiconductor dye) molecules are deposited on a MOSFET device. The refractive index mismatch between the silicon/silicon dioxide layer and the dye molecules forms an interference pattern. The frequency of the interference lines is tu…
An application of the radiolysis method using X-ray synchrotron beam is developed as a novel approach to the synthesis of metal-organic films with controlled shapes and thickness. We demonstrate that a Langmuir monolayer deposited onto a silver ion-containing subphase, irradiated by an incident beam impinging below the critical angle for total reflection, induces the synthesis of a stable nanostructured silver-organic ultrathin film at the air-water interface. The X-ray scattering is also used to monitor in situ the structure of the silver layer during the synthesis process. The layer is obser…
Organic semiconductors find increasing importance in spin transport devices due to the modulation and control of their properties through chemical synthetic versatility. The organic materials are used as interlayers between two ferromagnet (FM) electrodes in organic spin valves (OSV), as well as for magnetic spin manipulation of metal-organic complexes at the molecular level. In the latter, specifically, the substrate-induced magnetic switching in a paramagnetic molecule has been evoked extensively, but studied by delicate surface spectroscopies. Here we present evidence of the substantial mag…
Polymer based printable organic thin film transistor (OTFT) is a viable low cost alternative to amorphous silicon based thin film transistors and possesses light-weight and flexibility advantage. In this paper, we report on the hole injecting properties of doped PANI in OLED devices using it as an anode. From these results we conclude that hole doped PANI layers can be used as a low contact resistance source and drain electrode material for polymer OTFTs.
We show that it is possible to reach one of the ultimate goals of organic electronics: producing organic field-effect transistors with trap densities as low as in the bulk of single crystals. We studied the spectral density of localized states in the band gap (trap DOS) of small molecule organic semiconductors as derived from electrical characteristics of organic field-effect transistors or from space-charge-limited-current measurements. This was done by comparing data from a large number of samples including thin-film transistors (TFT's), single crystal field-effect transistors (SC-FET's) and…
Spin-current injection into an organic semiconductor $\rm{κ\text{-}(BEDT\text{-}TTF)_2Cu[N(CN)_2]Br}$ film induced by the spin pumping from an yttrium iron garnet (YIG) film. When magnetization dynamics in the YIG film is excited by ferromagnetic or spin-wave resonance, a voltage signal was found to appear in the $\rm{κ\text{-}(BEDT\text{-}TTF)_2Cu[N(CN)_2]Br}$ film. Magnetic-field-angle dependence measurements indicate that the voltage signal is governed by the inverse spin Hall effect in $\rm{κ\text{-}(BEDT\text{-}TTF)_2Cu[N(CN)_2]Br}$. We found that the voltage signal in the $\rm{κ\text{-}(…
We have produced solution-processed thin films of 6,13-bis(triisopropyl-silylethynyl) pentacene with grain sizes from a few micrometers up to millimeter scale by lateral crystallization from a rectangular stylus. Grains are oriented along the crystallization direction, and the grain size transverse to the crystallization direction depends inversely on the writing speed, hence forming a regular array of oriented grain boundaries with controllable spacing. We utilize these controllable arrays to systematically study the role of large-angle grain boundaries in carrier transport and charge trappin…
We present a simple but powerful method to determine the thicknesses of the accumulation and depletion layers and the distribution curve of injected carriers in organic field effect transistors. The conductivity of organic semiconductors in thin film transistors was measured in-situ and continuously with a bottom contact configuration, as a function of film thickness at various gate voltages. Using this method, the thicknesses of the accumulation and depletion layers of pentacene were determined to be 0.9 nm (VG=-15 V) and 5 nm (VG=15 V).
Vapour-deposited organic glasses are currently in use in many optoelectronic devices. Their operation temperature is limited by the glass transition temperature of the organic layers and thermal management strategies become increasingly important to improve the lifetime of the device. Here we report the unusual finding that molecular orientation heavily influences heat flow propagation in glassy films of small molecule organic semiconductors. The thermal conductivity of vapour-deposited thin-film semiconductor glasses is anisotropic and controlled by the deposition temperature. We compare our …
We present a comparative study of the growth of the technologically highly relevant gate dielectric and encapsulation material aluminum oxide in inorganic and also organic heterostructures. Atomic force microscopy studies indicate strong similarities in the surface morphology of aluminum oxide films grown on these chemically different substrates. In addition, from X-ray reflectivity measurements we extract the roughness exponent βof aluminum oxide growth on both substrates. By renormalising the aluminum oxide roughness by the roughness of the underlying organic film we find good agreement with…
It is known in thin-film deposition that the density of nucleated clusters $N$ varies with the deposition rate $R$ as a power law, $N \sim R^α$. The exponent $α$ is a function of the critical nucleus size $i$ in a way that changes with the aggregation-limiting process active in a given system. We extend here to generic aggregation-limiting processes the derivation of the analytical capture-zone distribution function $P_β(s) = a_βs^β\exp(-b_βs^2)$ of Pimpinelli and Einstein [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 226102 (2007)]. We show that the exponent $β$ is generally related to the critical nucleus size $i$ …
We have measured the thermal resistances of thin films of the small molecule organic semiconductors bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene (TIPS-pn), bis(triethylsilylethynyl) anthradithiophene (TES-ADT) and difluoro bis(triethylsilylethynyl) anthradithiophene (diF-TES-ADT). For each material, several films of different thicknesses have been measured to separate the effects of intrinsic thermal conductivity from interface thermal resistance. For non-crystalline films of all three materials, with thicknesses ranging from < 100 nm to > 4 microns, the thermal conductivities are similar to that o…
Even though the term `organic electronics' evokes rather organic devices, a significant part of its scope deals with physical properties of `active elements' such as organic films and interfaces. Examination of the film growth and the evolution of the interface formation are particularly needful for the understanding a mechanism controlling their final properties. Performing such experiments in an ultra-high vacuum allows both to `stretch' the time scale for pseudo real-time observations and to control properties of the probed systems on the atomic level. Photoemission technique probes directl…
Organic electronic materials have potential applications in a number of low-cost, large area electronic devices such as flat panel displays and inexpensive solar panels. Small molecules in the series Anthracene, Tetracene, Pentacene, are model molecules for organic semiconductor thin films to be used as the active layers in such devices. This has motivated a number of studies of polyacene thin film growth and structure. Although the majority of these studies rely on vapor-deposited films, solvent-based deposition of films with improved properties onto non-crystalline substrates is desired for …
Charge injection from electrodes into doped organic films is a widespread technology used in the majority of state-of-the-art organic semiconductor devices. Although such interfaces are commonly considered to form Ohmic contacts via strong band bending, an experiment that directly measures the contact resistance has not yet been demonstrated. In this study, we use a simple metal/doped organic semiconductor/metal stack and study its voltage-dependent resistance. A transport layer thickness variation proves that the presented experiment gains direct access to the contact resistance of the device…
We have used an electro-optic technique to measure the position-dependent infrared absorption of holes injected into a thin crystal of the organic semiconductor, 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)-pentacene incorporated in a field-effect transistor. By applying square-wave voltages of variable frequency to the gate or drain, one can measure the time it takes for charges to accumulate on the surface, and therefore determine their mobility.
We investigate the charge-transfer interfaces between metal and redox arylamine molecular films through studying the current-voltage characteristics of single-layer organic diodes with the aid of anode interfacial engineering method. The diode turn-on voltage is shown to be highly sensitive to the arylamine/metal charge-transfer interfaces and thus can serve as a probe in detecting such organic/metal interfaces. We show that the diode electrical performance could be tuned through engineering the arylamine/metal interfaces via controlling the factors of anode work function, arylamine substitute…
The future of 2D flexible electronics relies on the preparation of conducting ultrathin films of materials with mechanical robustness and flexibility in a simple but controlled manner. In this respect, metal-organic compounds present advantages over inorganic laminar crystals owing to their structural, chemical and functional diversity. While most metal-organic compounds are usually prepared in bulk, recent work has shown that some of them are processable down to low dimensional forms. Here we report the one-pot preparation, carried out at the water-air interface, of ultrathin (down to 4 nm) f…
Porous polymeric covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have been under intense synthetic investigation with over 100 unique structural motifs known. In order to realize the true potential of these materials, converting the powders into thin films with strict control of thickness and morphology is necessary and accomplished through techniques including interfacial synthesis, chemical exfoliation and mechanical delamination. Recent progress in the construction and tailored properties of thin film COFs are highlighted in this review, addressing mechanical properties as well as application-focused pr…
The performance of perovskite solar cells recently exceeded 15% solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency for small-area devices. The fundamental properties of the active absorber layers, hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites formed from mixing metal and organic halides [\textit{e.g.} (NH$_4$)PbI$_3$ and (CH$_3$NH$_3$)PbI$_3$], are largely unknown. The materials are semiconductors with direct band gaps at the boundary of the first Brillouin zone. The calculated dielectric response and band gaps show an orientation dependence, with a low barrier for rotation of the organic cations. Due to the e…
According to Moore law, the silicon semiconductor transistor based information system is facing its physical limitations due to fluctuations of random charge and leakage current. Molecular electronics is becoming more and more attractive owing to the advantages of easy molecular structure variability, flexibility, low-cost and compatibility with bioelectronics. In this handbook chapter, we reviewed the recent research progress of molecular electronics, especially the studies on nanoscale information memories, from the viewpoints of structure-property relationship. Two kinds of molecular system…
Effect of static charges on charge carrier transport in disordered organic materials is considered. Long range nature of Coulomb interaction requires to take into consideration a finite thickness of the transport layer. Presence of conducting electrodes significantly modifies properties of organic medium, removes a long range Coulomb divergence, and makes it possible to calculate in finite form statistical properties of organic medium (with nonzero total charge density), relevant for transport characteristics. A special attention is paid to the particular case of charge induced disorder - a di…
We report on the simple fabrication of hysteresis-free and electrically stable organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and inverters operating at voltages <1-2 V, enabled by the almost trap-free interface between the organic semiconductor and an ultra-thin (<20 nm) and highly insulating single-layer fluoropolymer gate dielectric (Cytop). OFETs with PTCDI-C13 (N,N'-ditridecylperylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylicdiimide) as semiconductor exhibit outstanding transistor characteristics: very low threshold voltage (0.2V), onset at 0V, steep subthreshold swing (0.1-0.2 V/decade), no hysteresis and exce…
Metal-organic framework (MOF) thin-films show unmatched promise as smart membranes and photo-catalytic coatings. However, their nucleation and growth resulting from intricate molecular assembly processes are not well understood, yet crucial to control the thin-film properties. Here, we directly observe the nucleation and growth behaviour of HKUST-1 thin-films by real-time in-situ AFM at different temperatures in the Cu-BTC solution. In combination with ex-situ infrared (nano-)spectroscopy, synthesis at 25°C reveals initial nucleation of rapidly growing HKUST-1 islands surrounded by a continuou…
