Fast fabrication over large areas of P3HT nanostructures with high supramolecular order

The fabrication of P3HT nanopatterns (lamellae and fibres) within a few minutes, in standard laboratory conditions (i.e., at room temperature and in air) and over areas as large as cm2, is reported. The nanostructures are prepared using a wet-processing method. A satisfactory control over the pattern topology (lamellae, hierarchically connected and parallel fibres, entangled but disconnected and quasi-parallel fibres, randomly oriented fibres) is obtained by simply changing one process parameter. UV-vis spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analyses carried out over the so-fabricated structures evidence a very high degree of supramolecular organization of the polymeric chains. Such a degree of order is similar or even better than that of P3HT samples treated with thermal or solvent annealing procedures. © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry.