Browsing by Author "Roth, Siegmar"

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Open Access
The effect of rod orientation on electrical anisotropy in silver nanowire networks for ultra-transparent electrodes
(2016) Ackermann, Thomas; Neuhaus, Raphael; Roth, Siegmar
Two-dimensional networks made of metal nanowires are excellent paradigms for the experimental observation of electrical percolation caused by continuous jackstraw-like physical pathways. Such systems became very interesting as alternative material in transparent electrodes, which are fundamental components in display devices. This work presents the experimental characterization of low-haze and ultra-transparent electrodes based on silver nanowires. The films are created by dip-coating, a feasible and scalable liquid film coating technique. We have found dominant alignment of the silver nanowires in withdrawal direction. The impact of this structural anisotropy on electrical anisotropy becomes more pronounced for low area coverage. The rod alignment does not influence the technical usability of the films as significant electrical anisotropy occurs only at optical transmission higher than 99 %. For films with lower transmission, electrical anisotropy becomes negligible. In addition to the experimental work, we have carried out computational studies in order to explain our findings further and compare them to our experiments and previous literature. This paper presents the first experimental observation of electrical anisotropy in two-dimensional silver nanowire networks close at the percolation threshold.
Open Access
Highly ordered LB films of DHAP : a donor acceptor substituted polyene
(1993) Schmelzer, Michael; Roth, Siegmar; Niesert, Claus-Peter; Effenberger, Franz; Li, Rui Cheng
The donor acceptor substituted polyene 5-(4-dihexadecylaminophenyl)-2-methyl-2,4-pentadienal (DHAP) is - due to its amphiphilic nature - a promising candidate for the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique. The molecule was studied as a monolayer on a pure water surface under argon atmosphere. Monolayers and multilayers were transfered onto solid support. The films showed a high degree of order in the monolayer as well as in thick multilayers. LB films were investigated with polarisation dependent UV/VIS absorption spectroscopy. The film spectra showed additional absorption peaks which were not present in the spectra of the molecules in solution. The relative peak intensities were highly dependent on the orientation of the electric field vector with respect to the substrate normal. To get a detailed picture of the arrangement of the films on the molecular level, we studied the polarisation dependence of the FTIR spectra in different experimental set-ups. The spectra showed a perpendicular orientation of the conjugated system with respect to the substrate, whereas the backbone of the saturated hydrocarbon chains showed a medium tilt angle of 20.0° with respect to the substrate normal. X-ray small angle diffraction measurements were applied to investigate the thickness of the LB layers. From the position of the Bragg peaks, a thickness of 5.45 nm per bilayer can be calculated, in agreement with a bilayer model showing different molecular alignment of the molecules transferred during upstroke and downstroke.