The effects of annealing on the structures and electrical conductivities of fullerene-derived nanowires

We have succeeded in fusing C-60 clusters into one-dimensional nanowires by electrophoretic deposition using porous anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) membranes as templates. The C-60 clusters are introduced through a dc electric field and polymerized in the channels. Here we present the results on the effects of annealing on the structures and electrical conductivities of the fullerene-derived nanowires. By changing the annealing temperature we found that the grain sizes became large at 523 K and 673 K while damaged to amorphous carbon resulted at 823 K, as determined by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) absorption spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The measurements of their electrical conductivities show their semiconducting behavior with resistance varied by more than two orders of magnitude after annealing.