Block copolymer-directed assembly of bare metal oxide nanocrystals for energy-related devices

The properties of metal oxide nanocrystals in energy-related devices are strongly dependent on the presence and chem. nature of ligands at their surface, and the architectures they assume in electroactive layers. The article presents a comprehensive strategy to control these aspects of the electrode's design. In particular, block-copolymer (BCP) templating of bare metal oxide nanocrystals suggest a highly efficacious process that is made possible by tuning the supramol. interactions between the nanocrystal surface and the nanocrystal binding domain of the BCP templating agent. These results are qual. much improved over other schemes, whereby templating agents were used to direct the assembly of nanocrystals with non-optimized ligands at their surfaces.