Nanocellulose/Fullerene Hybrid Films Assembled at the Air/Water Interface as Promising Functional Materials for Photo-electrocatalysis

Cellulose nanomaterials have been widely investigated in the last decade, unveiling attractive properties for emerging applications. The ability of sulfated cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) to guide the supramolecular organization of amphiphilic fullerene derivatives at the air/water interface has been...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polymers 2021-01, Vol.13 (2), p.243
Main Authors: Milano, Francesco, Guascito, Maria Rachele, Semeraro, Paola, Sawalha, Shadi, Da Ros, Tatiana, Operamolla, Alessandra, Giotta, Livia, Prato, Maurizio, Valli, Ludovico
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Assembly
Carbon
Cellulose
Experiments
Fullerenes
Functional materials
Graphene
Nanocrystals
Nanomaterials
Photoelectric effect
Photoelectric emission
Porphyrins
Pulp & paper industry
Silver chloride
Substrates
Sustainable materials
Thin films
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Summary:Cellulose nanomaterials have been widely investigated in the last decade, unveiling attractive properties for emerging applications. The ability of sulfated cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) to guide the supramolecular organization of amphiphilic fullerene derivatives at the air/water interface has been recently highlighted. Here, we further investigated the assembly of Langmuir hybrid films that are based on the electrostatic interaction between cationic fulleropyrrolidines deposited at the air/water interface and anionic CNCs dispersed in the subphase, assessing the influence of additional negatively charged species that are dissolved in the water phase. By means of isotherm acquisition and spectroscopic measurements, we demonstrated that a tetra-sulfonated porphyrin, which was introduced in the subphase as anionic competitor, strongly inhibited the binding of CNCs to the floating fullerene layer. Nevertheless, despite the strong inhibition by anionic molecules, the mutual interaction between fulleropyrrolidines at the interface and the CNCs led to the assembly of robust hybrid films, which could be efficiently transferred onto solid substrates. Interestingly, ITO-electrodes that were modified with five-layer hybrid films exhibited enhanced electrical capacitance and produced anodic photocurrents at 0.4 V vs Ag/AgCl, whose intensity (230 nA/cm ) proved to be four times higher than the one that was observed with the sole fullerene derivative (60 nA/cm ).
ISSN:2073-4360
2073-4360
DOI:10.3390/polym13020243