Orientation Preferences of Interchain Stackings for Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Nanowires Prepared Using Template-Based Wetting Methods

Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) nanowires have drawn great attention recently because of their unique properties that can be applied to optoelectronic devices such as conjugated polymer solar cells and organic field-effect transistors. There is still an urgent need, however, to study the fabrication and characterization of P3HT nanowires with controllable morphologies and molecular orientations. In this work, feasible routes are presented to fabricate P3HT nanowires using the solution wetting template method and the solvent-annealing-induced nanowetting in template (SAINT) method. The morphologies and chemical compositions of the P3HT nanowires prepared using these two methods are confirmed by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Raman spectroscopy. From the ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and wide-angle X-ray scattering results, it is concluded that the degrees of the crystallinity and the orientation preferences of interchain stackings along the pore axis for the P3HT nanowires prepared by the SAINT method are higher than those prepared by the solution wetting template method.