Rubrene-Directed Structural Transformation of Fullerene (C(60)) Microsheets to Nanorod Arrays with Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Properties

One-dimensional (1D) nanostructures possess huge potential in electronics and optoelectronics, but the axial alignment of such 1D structures is still a challenging task. Herein, we report a simple method that enables two-dimensional (2D) C(60) microsheets to evolve into highly ordered nanorod arrays using rubrene as a structure-directing agent. The structural transformation is accomplished by adding droplets of rubrene-m-xylene solution onto C(60) microsheets and allowing the m-xylene solvent to evaporate naturally. In sharp contrast, when rubrene is absent from m-xylene, randomly oriented C(60) nanorods are produced. Spectroscopic and microscopic characterizations collectively indicate a rather plausible transformation mechanism that the close lattice match allows the epitaxial growth of rubrene on C(60) microsheets, followed by the reassembly of dissolved C(60) along the aligned rubrene due to the intermolecular charge-transfer (CT) interactions, leading to the formation of ordered nanorod arrays. Due to the aligned structures and the CT interactions between rubrene and C(60), the photocurrent density of the nanorod arrays is improved by 31.2% in the UV region relative to the randomly oriented counterpart. This work presents a facile and effective strategy for the construction of ordered fullerene nanorod arrays, providing new ideas for the alignment of fullerene and other relevant organic microstructures.