First-Principles Investigation of the Electronic and Conducting Properties of Oligothienoacenes and their Derivatives

Herein, we calculated reorganization energies, vertical ionization energies, electron affinities, and HOMO–LUMO gaps of fused thiophenes and their derivatives, and analyzed the influence of different substituents on their electronic properties. Furthermore, we simulated the angular resolution anisotropic mobility for both electron- and hole-transport, based on quantum-chemical calculations combined with the Marcus–Hush electron-transfer theory. We showed that: 1) styrene-group substitution can effectively elevate the HOMO energy level and lower the LUMO energy level, and therefore lower both the hole- and electron-injection barriers; and 2) chemical oxidation of the thiophene ring can significantly improve the semiconductor properties of the fused oligothiophenes through a decrease of the injection barrier and an increase in the charge-transfer mobility for electrons but without lowering their hole-transfer mobilities, which suggests that it may be a promising way to convert p-type semiconductors into ambipolar or n-type semiconductor materials.     

推/拉电子取代基对PCBM结构及光谱性质影响的理论研究

应用密度泛函理论(DFT)方法计算[6,6]-苯基-C₆₁-丁酸甲酯(PCBM)及其苯环对位取代得到的4种衍生物的几何和电子结构. 采用第一激发能校正了分子的最低未占据分子轨道(LUMO)能级, 探讨了推/拉电子基团对分子前线轨道的影响. 在全优化几何构型的基础上, 采用含时密度泛函理论(TD-DFT)方法研究了电子吸收光谱特征和电荷转移态性质, 并讨论了推/拉电子基团对体系电子吸收光谱性质的影响. 通过对重组能和电子亲和势的计算, 预测了PCBM与4种衍生物的电子能力及电子迁移率大小的关系. 结果表明, 在PCBM中, 在苯环的对位引入推电子基团可以提高分子的前线轨道能级, 改变前线轨道电子云分布, 明显增强可见光范围内的吸收强度, 增加可见光范围内的电荷转移吸收, 且激发态的电荷转移随着引入基团推电子能力的增加而增强. 化合物5的激发态分子内电荷转移性质最强, 且具有较独特的光伏性质. 而在同样位置引入拉电子基团, 则降低了分子前线轨道能级对电子吸收光谱的影响.     

Influence of lattice dynamics on charge transport in the dianthra[2,3-b:2',3'-f]-thieno[3,2-b]thiophene organic crystals from a theoretical study

The influence of lattice dynamics on carrier mobility has received much attention in organic crystalline semiconductors, because the molecular components are held together by weak interactions and the transfer integrals between neighboring molecular orbitals are extremely sensitive to small nuclear displacements. Recently, it has been shown that the dynamic disorder has little effect on hole mobility in the ab plane of pentacene, but a reasonable explanation is absent for such a puzzle. To better understand the effect of lattice vibrations on carrier transport, a further study is required for other organic materials. In this work, a mixed molecular dynamic and quantum-chemical methodology is used to assess the effect of nuclear dynamics on hole mobility in the dianthra[2,3-b:2',3'-f]-thieno[3,2-b]thiophene (DATT) crystals which exhibit high air stability with the hole mobility as large as that in rubrene-based devices. It is found that the lattice vibrations lead to an increasing encumbrance for hole transport in the ab plane of the DATT crystals as the temperature increases. By comparing the crystal structures of DATT and pentacene, the reduced hole mobility in DATT is attributed to the unsymmetric arrays of nearest-neighboring molecular dimers in the ab plane, because the electronic coupling exhibits unbalanced thermal fluctuations for the nearest-neighboring dimers which then induces a stronger oscillation for carriers along the directions with asymmetric packing. To further relate the dynamic disorder with hole transport, the variations of anisotropic mobilities are also analyzed. As a result, the negligible effect of lattice dynamics on the hole mobility in pentacene is explained by the centrosymmetric molecular packing of the nearest-neighboring molecular pairs in the ab plane.     

Hole transport in triphenylamine based OLED devices: from theoretical modeling to properties prediction

For the series of para-substituted triphenylamines, optimized geometries, HOMO and LUMO energy levels, ionization potentials Ip, reorganization energies for hole transport λ(+), and frontier orbital contours have been calculated by means of ab initio computations. Relationships between them and the Hammett parameter are presented. According to calculations, electron releasing substituents increase the HOMO and LUMO energies of TPA, while electron withdrawing ones decrease it. This behavior is reflected in subsequent decreasing and increasing of ionization potentials of substituted TPAs. Calculations show that there exists also a strong substituent effect on the reorganization energy λ(+), which is a dominating factor of hole mobility. It is concluded that proper tuning of the HOMO and LUMO levels (and, as a result, ionization potential, Ip) and reorganization energy λ(+) (consequently, hole mobility) of the triphenylamine can be done by alteration of the TPA electronic structure by an appropriate substitution. It is demonstrated that the proper adjustment of the HOMO levels of HTM facilitates the reduction of an energy barrier at the interface of ITO/HTL and HTL/EL and ensure the high hole injection and hole transport rate. On the other hand, appropriate adjustment of the LUMO level prevents an electron leak from the EL into the HTM layer. Results of these calculations can be useful in the process of designing new HTM materials of desired properties (high efficiency, stability, and durability).     

新型共轭聚合物的设计合成及其在场效应晶体管的应用

近年来,有机场效应晶体管(OFETs)由于在柔性器件和可穿戴电子学中的潜在应用受到了学术界和工业界的普遍关注,尤其是以聚合物半导体材料构筑的晶体管性能得到了快速的发展.如何设计合成用于OFETs的高性能聚合物半导体材料,一直是我们的追求目标.然而,分子结构对迁移率的影响仍缺少系统的比较.本文综述了近年来国内外新型聚合物材料的最新进展.我们按照材料的种类以及载流子的传输类型进行了分类,对高性能聚合物材料的发展过程、材料的设计思路以及相应的FETs性能进行了系统地归纳总结.通过研究分子及分子聚集态结构与器件性能之间的关系,希望为以后设计合成新型的高性能的聚合物材料提供有益的借鉴和指导.     

Bithiophene-imide-based polymeric semiconductors for field-effect transistors: synthesis, structure-property correlations, charge carrier polarity, and device stability

Developing new high-mobility polymeric semiconductors with good processability and excellent device environmental stability is essential for organic electronics. We report the synthesis, characterization, manipulation of charge carrier polarity, and device air stability of a new series of bithiophene-imide (BTI)-based polymers for organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). By increasing the conjugation length of the donor comonomer unit from monothiophene (P1) to bithiophene (P2) to tetrathiophene (P3), the electron transport capacity decreases while the hole transport capacity increases. Compared to the BTI homopolymer P(BTimR) having an electron mobility of 10(-2) cm(2) V(-1) s(-1), copolymer P1 is ambipolar with balanced hole and electron mobilities of ～10(-4) cm(2) V(-1) s(-1), while P2 and P3 exhibit hole mobilities of ～10(-3) and ～10(-2) cm(2) V(-1) s(-1), respectively. The influence of P(BTimR) homopolymer M(n) on film morphology and device performance was also investigated. The high M(n) batch P(BTimR)-H affords more crystalline film microstructures; hence, 3× increased electron mobility (0.038 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1)) over the low M(n) one P(BTimR)-L (0.011 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1)). In a top-gate/bottom-contact OFET architecture, P(BTimR)-H achieves a high electron mobility of 0.14 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1), only slightly lower than that of state-of-the-art n-type polymer semiconductors. However, the high-lying P(BTimR)-H LUMO results in minimal electron transport on exposure to ambient. Copolymer P3 exhibits a hole mobility approaching 0.1 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) in top-gate OFETs, comparable to or slightly lower than current state-of-the-art p-type polymer semiconductors (0.1-0.6 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1)). Although BTI building block incorporation does not enable air-stable n-type OFET performance for P(BTimR) or P1, it significantly increases the OFET air stability for p-type P2 and P3. Bottom-gate/top-contact and top-gate/bottom-contact P2 and P3 OFETs exhibit excellent stability in the ambient. Thus, P2 and P3 OFET hole mobilities are almost unchanged after 200 days under ambient, which is attributed to their low-lying HOMOs (>0.2 eV lower than that of P3HT), induced by the strong BTI electron-withdrawing capacity. Complementary inverters were fabricated by inkjet patterning of P(BTimR)-H (n-type) and P3b (p-type).     

Solution‐Processable Balanced Ambipolar Field‐Effect Transistors Based on Carbonyl‐Regulated Copolymers

It is very important to develop ambipolar field effect transistors to construct complementary circuits. To obtain balanced hole‐ and electron‐transport properties, one of the key issues is to regulate the energy levels of the frontier orbitals of the semiconductor materials by structural tailoring, so that they match well with the electrode Fermi levels. Five conjugated copolymers were synthesized and exhibited low LUMO energy levels and narrow bandgaps on account of the strong electron‐withdrawing effect of the carbonyl groups. Polymer thin film transistors were prepared by using a solution method and exhibited high and balanced hole and electron mobility of up to 0.46 cm² V^?1 s^?1, which suggested that these copolymers are promising ambipolar semiconductor materials.     

Benzodicarbomethoxytetrathiafulvalene derivatives as soluble organic semiconductors

A series of new tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) derivatives bearing dimethoxycarbonyl and phenyl or phthalimidyl groups fused to the TTF core (6 and 15-18) has been synthesized as potential soluble semiconductor materials for organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). The electron-withdrawing substituents lower the energy of the HOMO and LUMO levels and increase the solubility and stability of the semiconducting material. Crystal structures of all new TTF derivatives are also described, and theoretical DFT calculations were carried out to study the potential of the crystals to be used in OFET. In the experimental study, the best performing device exhibited a hole mobility up to 7.5 × 10(-3) cm(2) V(-1) s(-1)).     

Fluorinated organic materials for electronic and optoelectronic applications: the role of the fluorine atom

In this article we highlight, by means of selected examples drawn from work performed in our or other laboratories, the features of some classes of fluorinated conjugated materials and their use in electronic devices such as electroluminescent diodes or field effect transistors. A variety of fluorinated conjugated systems, either molecular or polymeric, such as poly(phenylenevinylene)s, poly(phenyleneethynylene)s, polythiophenes, polyphenylenes, are dealt with. Attention is also focused on a different class of electroluminescent compounds, represented by the cyclometalated iridium complexes with various forms (mer and fac). In particular, fluorine atoms lower both the HOMO and LUMO energy levels. Consequently, the electron injection is made easier, the materials display a greater resistance against the degradative oxidation processes and organic n-type or ambipolar semiconducting materials may result. Moreover, the C-H...F interactions play an important role in the solid state supramolecular organization, originating a typical pi-stack arrangement which enhances the charge carrier mobility.     

Synthesis and characterization of a novel ambipolar polymer semiconductor based on a fumaronitrile core as an electron‐withdrawing group

Two conjugated polymers containing stilbene and fumaronitrile moieties were synthesized to investigate their electronic properties by the existence of electron‐withdrawing cyano groups on a vinylene backbone. The cyclic voltammetry investigation and time‐dependent density functional theory calculations indicated that the cyano substituents lowered the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy level by about 0.65 and 0.63 eV, respectively. The lowering of the LUMO energy levels due to the electron‐withdrawing properties of the cyano substituents could enhance electron injection capability. Furthermore, bithiophene‐fumaronitrile (donor‐acceptor) intermolecular interaction facilitates the self‐assembly of the polymer chains. Organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs) based on PBTSB without the electron‐withdrawing group only exhibit hole transport, while OFETs based on PBTFN with cyano substituents exhibit ambipolar characteristics. The growth of PBTFN crystalline fibrils was observed with increasing annealing temperature, which enhanced hole and electron mobility. A complementary‐like inverter using PBTFN with ambipolar properties exhibited good symmetry with an inverting voltage nearly half that of the power supply with a gain of 9 at V_DD = 100 V. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2013     

Cyanation: providing a three-in-one advantage for the design of n-type organic field-effect transistors

The theoretical work presented here demonstrates that, when substitution takes place at appropriate positions, cyanation could be a useful tool for reducing the internal reorganization energy of molecules. A molecular-orbital-based explanation is given for this fundamentally important phenomenon. Some of the cyanated pentacene derivatives (nCN-PENT-n) not only have internal reorganization energies for electron transfer (lambda(-)) smaller than that of pentacene, but the lambda(-) values are even of the same magnitude as the internal reorganization energy for hole transfer (lambda(+)) of pentacene, a small value that few organic compounds have surpassed. In addition, cyanation raises the electron affinity of the parent compound and may afford good electronic couplings between neighboring molecules, because of its ability in promoting pi-stacking. For the design of high performance n-Type Organic field-effect transistors, high electron affinities, large intermolecular electronic couplings, and small reorganization energies are necessary. Cyanation may help in all three aspects. Two cyanated trialkylsilylethynyl pentacene derivatives with known pi-stacking structures are predicted to provide reasonably small internal reorganization energies, large electronic couplings, and high electron affinities. They have the potential to outperform N-fluoroalkylated dicyanoperylene-3,4:9,10-bis(dicarboximides) (PDI-FCN(2)) in terms of electron mobility.     

Theoretical investigation on the white-light emission from a single-polymer system with simultaneous blue and orange emission (Part II)

We report here a theoretical investigation of the white-light emission from a single-polymer system with simultaneous blue (polyfluorene as a blue host) and orange (2,1,3-benzothiadiazole(BTD)-based derivative as an orange dopant) emission. With use of quantum-chemical approaches, our studies are focused on the variation in electronic and optical properties as a function of the chemical composition of the backbone in BTD-based derivatives. Furthermore, the results show that the electronic and optical properties of designed BTD-based derivatives can be tuned by the introduction of suitable electron-donating groups on terminal N,N-disubstituted amino groups, implying good candidates as orange dopants in WPLEDs with polyfluorene as a blue-light-emitting host. In addition, low reorganization energy values of holes or narrow differences between hole and electron transportations within the framework of the charge hopping model suggest designed BTD-based derivatives to be good hole transport or ambipolar transport materials in organic light-emitting diodes. It is also found that the designed BTD-based derivatives containing fluorene-based unit exhibit higher stability.     

The effect of diphenylamine on the electronic, optical, and charge transport properties of BTD-based derivative: Insights from theory

Theoretical investigations have been performed to explore the variation in electronic,optical,and charge transport properties upon the change of the chemical composition along the backbone in 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole(BTD)-based derivative.Narrow difference between hole and electron transportations with the charge hopping model indicates studied BTD-based derivative can be used as good ambipolar transport material in organic light-emitting diodes.     

吲哚并咔唑类衍生物载流子传输性质的理论研究

以密度泛函理论结合跳跃模型, 重点研究了氯原子和烷基链的引入对吲哚并咔唑类衍生物传输性质的影响. 计算结果表明, 与吲哚并[3,2-b]咔唑(1)相比, 氯原子的引入增大了2,8-二氯吲哚并[3,2-b]咔唑(2)和2,8-二氯-5,11-二己基吲哚并[3,2-b]咔唑(3)的最高占据分子轨道(HOMO)的离域程度, 而对最低未被占据分子轨道(LUMO)则无显著贡献, 但明显降低了二者的能级. 上述结果表明, 对于LUMO, 氯原子体现了吸电子效应, 而对于HOMO, 氯原子体现了共轭效应. 烷基链的引入使化合物3的空穴迁移率明显高于化合物1和2, 这主要归因于化合物3具有更加紧密的分子堆积, 尤其在跳跃路径A中, 具有更大的分子间电子耦合和轨道重叠. 同时能带结构的计算结果进一步证明, 氯原子和烷基链的同时引入大大改善了吲哚并咔唑类衍生物的电荷传输性能.     

Electronic structure and microscopic charge‐transport properties of a new‐type diketopyrrolopyrrole‐based material

Recently, diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)‐based materials have attracted much interest due to their promising performance as a subunit in organic field effect transistors. Using density functional theory and charge‐transport models, we investigated the electronic structure and microscopic charge transport properties of the cyanated bithiophene‐functionalized DPP molecule (compound 1 ). First, we analyzed in detail the partition of the total relaxation (polaron) energy into the contributions from each vibrational mode and the influence of bond‐parameter variations on the local electron–vibration coupling of compound 1 , which well explains the effects of different functional groups on internal reorganization energy (λ). Then, we investigated the structural and electronic properties of compound 1 in its isolated molecular state and in the solid state form, and further simulated the angular resolution anisotropic mobility for both electron‐ and hole‐transport using two different simulation methods: (i) the mobility orientation function proposed in our previous studies (method 1); and (ii) the master equation approach (method 2). The calculated electron‐transfer mobility (0.00003–0.784 cm² V^?1 s^?1 from method 1 and 0.02–2.26 cm² V^?1 s^?1 from method 2) matched reasonably with the experimentally reported value (0.07–0.55 cm² V^?1 s^?1). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the transport parameters of compound 1 were calculated in the context of band model and hopping models, and both calculation results suggest that the intrinsic hole mobility is higher than the corresponding intrinsic electron mobility. Our calculation results here will be instructive to further explore the potential of other higher DPP‐containing quinoidal small molecules. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Ambipolar, high performance, acene-based organic thin film transistors

We present a high performance, ambipolar organic field-effect transistor composed of a single material. Ambipolar molecules are rare, and they can enable low-power complementary-like circuits. This low band gap, asymmetric linear acene contains electron-withdrawing fluorine atoms, which lower the molecular orbital energies, allowing the injection of electrons. While hole and electron mobilities of up to 0.071 and 0.37 cm2/V.s, respectively, are reported on devices measured in nitrogen, hole mobilities of up to 0.12 cm2/V.s were found in ambient, with electron transport quenched. These devices were fabricated on octadecyltrimethoxysilane-treated surfaces at a substrate temperature of 60 degrees C.     

From electronic excited state theory to the property predictions of organic optoelectronic materials

We introduce here a work package for a National Natural Science Foundation of China Major Project. We propose to develop computational methodology starting from the theory of electronic excitation processes to predicting the opto-electronic property for organic materials, in close collaborations with experiments. Through developing methods for the electron dynamics, considering superexchange electronic couplings, spin-orbit coupling elements between excited states, electron-phonon relaxation, intermolecular Coulomb and exchange terms we combine the statistical physics approaches including dynamic Monte Carlo, Boltzmann transport equation and Boltzmann statistics to predict the macroscopic properties of opto-electronic materials such as light-emitting efficiency, charge mobility, and exciton diffusion length. Experimental synthesis and characterization of D-A type ambipolar transport material as well as novel carbon based material will provide a test ground for the verification of theory.     

Halogenated 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)-5,7,12,14-tetraazapentacene: applications for ambipolar air-stable organic field-effect transistors

Density functional theory calculations were performed to explore the influence of halogenation on the reorganization energies (λ), adiabatic ionization potentials (IPs), adiabatic electron affinities (EAs), and air stabilities of a series of pentacene (PENT) and tetraceno[2,3-b]thiophene (TbTH) derivatives. According to calculated IP and EA values, all well-known PENT and TbTH derivatives in this paper are air-stable p-channel but not air-stable n-channel organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) due to insufficient EAs, consistent with experimental observations. The calculated results show that attaching two or more halogen atoms onto air-unstable 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)-5,7,12,14-tetraazapentacene (TIPS-N4PENT) is sufficient for promoting ambipolar air-stable properties. The electronic coupling and band structure calculations indicate that halogenated TIPS-N4PENT derivatives have potential applications in high-performance ambipolar air-stable OFETs. They also provide rational guidelines for the design of ambipolar air-stable organic semiconductors (OSCs).     

Theoretically Rational Designs of Transport Organic Semiconductors Based on Heteroacenes

A Marcus electron transfer theory coupled with an incoherent polaron hopping and charge diffusion model in combining with first‐principle quantum chemistry calculation was applied to investigating the effects of heteroatom on the intermolecular charge transfer rate for a series of heteroacene molecules. The influences of intermolecular packing and charge reorganization energy were discussed. It was found that the sulphur and nitrogen substituted heteroacenes were intrinsically hole‐transporting materials due to the reduced hole reorganization energy and the enhanced overlap between HOMOs. For the oxygen‐substituted heteroacene, it was found that both the electronic couplings and the reorganization energies for holes and electrons were comparative, indicating the application potential of ambipolar devices. Most interestingly, for the boron‐substituted heteroacenes, theoretical calculations predicted a promising electron‐transport material, which is rare for organic materials. These findings provide insights into rationally designing organic semiconductors with specific properties.     

Molecular and Electronic‐Structure Basis of the Ambipolar Behavior of Naphthalimide–Terthiophene Derivatives: Implementation in Organic Field‐Effect Transistors

A new family of naphthalimide‐fused thienopyrazine derivatives for ambipolar charge transport in organic field‐effect transistors is presented. Their electronic and molecular structures were elucidated through optical and vibrational spectroscopy aided by DFT calculations. The results indicate that these compounds have completely planar molecular skeletons which promote good film crystallinity and low reorganization energies for both electron and hole transport. Their performance in organic field‐effect transistors is compared with twisted and planar naphthaleneamidine monoimide‐fused terthiophenes in order to understand the origin of ambipolarity in this new series of molecular semiconductors.