Fabrication of Polydiacetylene Nanowires by Associated Self-Polymerization and Self-Assembly Processes for Efficient Field Emission Properties

The paper described here concerns a challenge of general interest for producing a novel structure of a polymer aggregate, the achievement of nanowires with controlled diameters. We provide a strategy for fabricating a supramolecular polymer, in which ordered polydiacetylene nanowires can be obtained by associated self-polymerization and self-assembly processes. The polymer nanowire film shows excellent field emission properties with the turn-on field of 8.2 V/μm at 10 μA/cm2 and the maximum current density of 5 mA/cm2 at an applied field of 15 V/μm.