The experimental Young’s modulus of polythiophene nanofibers

The Young’s modulus of polythiophene (PT) nanofibers has not been reported so far. In this paper, PT nanofibers were electrolytically prepared from thiophene monomer with a porous anodic aluminum oxide template. The Young's modulus of individual PT nanofibers was measured using atomic force microscopy. The average Young's modulus of PT nanofibers with diameters around 90 nm was 64.5 ± 5.0 GPa, which is an order of magnitude higher than its bulk value. We attribute the high Young’s modulus of PT nanofibers to the alignment of the molecular chain.