Combining the best properties of two materials to get better properties - novel self-assembled organ

What happens when you take a water-insoluble perylene diimide (PDI) and a water-insoluble carbon nanotube and combine them? Why you get an aqueous dispersion from which one can make films of novel hybrid materials. These films are very thermally robust and have excellent conductivities that rival common polymer/CNT hybrid materials. Moreover, the colour of the film can be tuned by adding different PDI derivatives. These novel ONC/CNT hybrids represent a novel class of nanocomposites with applications as optoelectronic and conductive colourant materials.

Want to know more, see: Angelica Niazov-Elkan, Haim Weissman, Sounak Dutta, Sidney R. Cohen, Mark A. Iron, Iddo Pinkas, Tatyana Bendikov and Boris Rybtchinski, Advanced Materials, 2018, 30(2), 1705027 (read online).