Figure 3

(a–d) AFM images of sGNRs after the adsorption of molecular nanoparticles of NDI onto them by the drop casting of C15-NDI solutions of different concentrations. The concentrations of the solutions were (a) 0.05 g L⁻¹, (b) 0.1 g L⁻¹, (c) 0.5 g L⁻¹ and (d) 1.0 g L⁻¹. (e) Schematic of the setup used to determine the I-V characteristics of the NDI-adsorbing sGNRs using PCI-AFM. (f) Molecular structure of C15-NDI. (g) I-V curves of the C15-NDI/GNR complex for different concentrations of the C15-NDI solution. As the concentration of the solution was increased, (i) the current decreased gradually and (ii) the plateau width (PW) increased. (h) The values of the PW plotted as a function of the number of C15-NDI nanoparticles adsorbed on the sGNRs per unit length of the sGNRs. Owing to steric hindrance, the upper limit for the number of nanoparticles adsorbed per unit length was approximately 0.1.