Abstract
Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) is a hole-conducting polymer that has been intensively used to develop organic optoelectronic devices (e.g., organic solar cells). Recently, P3HT films and nanoparticles have also been used to restore the photosensitivity of retinal neurons. The template-assisted electrochemical synthesis of polymer nanowires advantageously combines polymerization and polymer nanostructuring into one, relatively simple, procedure. However, obtaining P3HT nanowires through this procedure was rarely investigated. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the template-assisted electrochemical synthesis of P3HT nanowires doped with tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate (TBAHFP) and their biocompatibility with primary neurons. We show that template-assisted electrochemical synthesis can relatively easily turn 3-hexylthiophene (3HT) into longer (e.g., 17 ± 3 µm) or shorter (e.g., 1.5 ± 0.4 µm) P3HT nanowires with an average diameter of 196 ± 55 nm (determined by the used template). The nanowires produce measurable photocurrents following illumination. Finally, we show that primary cortical neurons can be grown onto P3HT nanowires drop-casted on a glass substrate without relevant changes in their viability and electrophysiological properties, indicating that P3HT nanowires obtained by template-assisted electrochemical synthesis represent a promising neuronal interface for photostimulation.
Highlights
IntroductionP3HT is surrounded by great interest mainly because of its excellent optoelectronic properties (such as good electrical conductivity and high extinction coefficient) and good processability, which make this polymer an excellent choice for building organic optoelectronic devices (e.g., organic solar cells)
P3HT is surrounded by great interest mainly because of its excellent optoelectronic properties and good processability, which make this polymer an excellent choice for building organic optoelectronic devices
In order to observe whether the electrochemically synthesized P3HT nanowires are characterized by photosensitivity or not, we investigated the photocurrents generated by a disk-shaped, glassy carbon electrode (2 mm in diameter, from Metrohm A.G., Herisau, Switzerland) modified with the P3HT nanowires
Summary
P3HT is surrounded by great interest mainly because of its excellent optoelectronic properties (such as good electrical conductivity and high extinction coefficient) and good processability, which make this polymer an excellent choice for building organic optoelectronic devices (e.g., organic solar cells). As a consequence of the interest surrounding P3HT, several ways to synthesize this polymer were developed and described in the literature. Most of these ways are based on chemical synthesis [1]. Polymer solar cells based on P3HT and [6,6]-phenylC61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) were found to be more efficient when made of a dense network of crystalline P3HT nanowires than when made of amorphous P3HT [8,9]
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