Theoretical characterization of charge transport in chromia (alpha-Cr2O3)

Transport of conduction electrons and holes through the lattice of alpha-Cr2O3 (chromia) is modeled as a valence alternation of chromium cations using ab initio electronic structure calculations and electron-transfer theory. In the context of the small polaron model, a cluster approach was used to compute quantities controlling the mobility of localized electrons and holes, i.e., the reorganization energy and the electronic coupling matrix element that enter Marcus' theory. The calculation of the electronic coupling followed the generalized Mulliken-Hush approach using the complete active space self-consistent-field (CASSCF) method and the quasidiabatic method. Our findings indicate that hole mobility is more than three orders of magnitude larger than electron mobility in both (001) and [001] lattice directions. The difference arises mainly from the larger internal reorganization energy calculated for electron-transport relative to hole-transport processes while electronic couplings have similar magnitudes. The much larger hole mobility versus electron mobility in alpha-Cr2O3 is in contrast to similar hole and electron mobilities in hematite alpha-Fe2O3 previously calculated. Our calculations also indicate that the electronic coupling for all charge-transfer processes of interest is smaller than for the corresponding processes in hematite. This variation is attributed to the weaker interaction between the metal 3d states and the O(2p) states in chromia than in hematite, leading to a smaller overlap between the charge-transfer donor and acceptor wave functions and smaller superexchange coupling in chromia. Nevertheless, the weaker coupling in chromia is still sufficiently large to suggest that charge-transport processes in chromia are adiabatic in nature. The electronic coupling is found to depend on both the superexchange interaction through the bridging oxygen atoms and the d-shell electron-spin coupling within the Cr-Cr donor-acceptor pair, while the reorganization energy is essentially independent of the electron-spin coupling.     

Theoretical characterization of titanyl phthalocyanine as a p-type organic semiconductor: short intermolecular pi-pi interactions yield large electronic couplings and hole transport bandwidths

The charge-transport properties of the triclinic phase II crystal of titanyl phthalocyanine (alpha-TiOPc) are explored within both a hopping and bandlike regime. Electronic coupling elements in convex- and concave-type dimers are calculated using density functional theory, and the relationship between molecular structure and crystal packing structure in model dimer configurations is considered. Hole transport bandwidths derived from crystal structure dimers are compared to those obtained from electronic band structure calculations; very good agreement between the two approaches is found. The calculations predict large hole bandwidths, on the order of 0.4 eV, and correspondingly very low hole reorganization energies.     

Influence of the alkyl and alkoxy side chains on the electronic structure and charge-transport properties of polythiophene derivatives

Density Functional Theory has been used to study the structural, electronic and charge-transport properties of two regio-regular head-to-tail polythiophene derivatives, i.e. poly(3-hexyl-thiophene), P3HT, and poly(3-oxyhexyl-thiophene), P3OHT. The effect of substituents on the electronic structure was analyzed by means of bandwidth, bandgap, effective mass, total and partial densities of states and crystal orbital overlap populations. Electronic couplings were estimated from band diagrams as the splitting of the valence band. The neutral and cationic states of isolated oligomers were optimized using the supercell approximation. The hole-transfer rates and mobilities were evaluated according to Marcus's theory. Results provide a compelling illustration of the effect of side chains on the crystal packing, electronic structure and charge-transport properties. Thus, the hole mobility calculated for the alkyl derivative was 0.15 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) (experimental mobility is 0.10 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1)), while the alkoxy derivative has a theoretical mobility of 0.49 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1). The obtained results hopefully could motivate experimentalists to try out P3OHT for an improved charge carrier mobility.     

萤火虫氧化荧光素及其衍生物的电子结构和光物理性质

通过密度泛函理论(DFT)的MPW3PBE泛函, 对萤火虫生物发光底物氧化荧光素及其衍生物进行了结构全优化. 计算了其电离能、 电子亲和势、 空穴抽取能、 电子抽取能、 空穴和电子重组能, 并评估了其空穴和电子传输能力. 采用含时密度泛函理论(TD-DFT)//MPW3PBE/6-31+G(d)方法计算了吸收光谱, 优化了最低单重态S₁, 研究了其荧光光谱, 进而考察了具有较高发光效率的氧化荧光素作为有机发光二极管(OLED)材料的可能性. 计算结果表明, 氧化荧光素及其衍生物可以同时作为电子传输层和发光层材料.     

Density functional theory study on electron and hole transport properties of organic pentacene derivatives with electron-withdrawing substituent

Attaching electron-withdrawing substituent to organic conjugated molecules is considered as an effective method to produce n-type and ambipolar transport materials. In this work, we use density functional theory calculations to investigate the electron and hole transport properties of pentacene (PENT) derivatives after substituent and simulate the angular resolution anisotropic mobility for both electron and hole transport. Our results show that adding electron-withdrawing substituents can lower the energy level of lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and increase electron affinity, which are beneficial to the electron injection and ambient stability of the material. Also the LUMO electronic couplings for electron transport in these pentacene derivatives can achieve up to a hundred meV which promises good electron transport mobility, although adding electron-withdrawing groups will introduce the increase of electron transfer reorganization energy. The final results of our angular resolution anisotropic mobility simulations show that the electron mobility of these pentacene derivatives can get to several cm(2) V(-1) s(-1), but it is important to control the orientation of the organic material relative to the device channel to obtain the highest electron mobility. Our investigation provide detailed information to assist in the design of n-type and ambipolar organic electronic materials with high mobility performance.     

First-principles theoretical investigation of the electronic couplings in single crystals of phenanthroline-based organic semiconductors

The electronic couplings between adjacent molecules in the phenanthroline-based bathocuproine (BCP) and bathophenanthroline (Bphen) crystals have been studied using density functional theory on model dimers. Within the frame of the "two-state model" of charge-transfer theory, a generalized definition of the "effective transfer integral" is proposed. This definition addresses the issue arising when the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) [highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)] and LUMO+1 (HOMO-1) of the single molecules both have significant contributions to the dimer LUMO (HOMO) level. Charge-transfer integrals based on the new definition are compared with those from previous models; significant differences are found. The authors' results indicate that, within a simple Marcus theory approach, the charge-transport parameters of the BCP and Bphen crystals are expected to be similar.     

Anhydrous crystals of DNA bases are wide gap semiconductors

We present the structural, electronic, and optical properties of anhydrous crystals of DNA nucleobases (guanine, adenine, cytosine, and thymine) found after DFT (Density Functional Theory) calculations within the local density approximation, as well as experimental measurements of optical absorption for powders of these crystals. Guanine and cytosine (adenine and thymine) anhydrous crystals are predicted from the DFT simulations to be direct (indirect) band gap semiconductors, with values 2.68 eV and 3.30 eV (2.83 eV and 3.22 eV), respectively, while the experimentally estimated band gaps we have measured are 3.83 eV and 3.84 eV (3.89 eV and 4.07 eV), in the same order. The electronic effective masses we have obtained at band extremes show that, at low temperatures, these crystals behave like wide gap semiconductors for electrons moving along the nucleobases stacking direction, while the hole transport are somewhat limited. Lastly, the calculated electronic dielectric functions of DNA nucleobases crystals in the parallel and perpendicular directions to the stacking planes exhibit a high degree of anisotropy (except cytosine), in agreement with published experimental results.     

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.     

Electronic couplings and on-site energies for hole transfer in DNA: systematic quantum mechanical/molecular dynamic study

The electron hole transfer (HT) properties of DNA are substantially affected by thermal fluctuations of the pi stack structure. Depending on the mutual position of neighboring nucleobases, electronic coupling V may change by several orders of magnitude. In the present paper, we report the results of systematic QM/molecular dynamic (MD) calculations of the electronic couplings and on-site energies for the hole transfer. Based on 15 ns MD trajectories for several DNA oligomers, we calculate the average coupling squares V(2) and the energies of basepair triplets XG(+)Y and XA(+)Y, where X, Y=G, A, T, and C. For each of the 32 systems, 15,000 conformations separated by 1 ps are considered. The three-state generalized Mulliken-Hush method is used to derive electronic couplings for HT between neighboring basepairs. The adiabatic energies and dipole moment matrix elements are computed within the INDO/S method. We compare the rms values of V with the couplings estimated for the idealized B-DNA structure and show that in several important cases the couplings calculated for the idealized B-DNA structure are considerably underestimated. The rms values for intrastrand couplings G-G, A-A, G-A, and A-G are found to be similar, approximately 0.07 eV, while the interstrand couplings are quite different. The energies of hole states G(+) and A(+) in the stack depend on the nature of the neighboring pairs. The XG(+)Y are by 0.5 eV more stable than XA(+)Y. The thermal fluctuations of the DNA structure facilitate the HT process from guanine to adenine. The tabulated couplings and on-site energies can be used as reference parameters in theoretical and computational studies of HT processes in DNA.     

Estimates of electronic coupling for excess electron transfer in DNA

Electronic coupling V(da) is one of the key parameters that determine the rate of charge transfer through DNA. While there have been several computational studies of V(da) for hole transfer, estimates of electronic couplings for excess electron transfer (ET) in DNA remain unavailable. In the paper, an efficient strategy is established for calculating the ET matrix elements between base pairs in a pi stack. Two approaches are considered. First, we employ the diabatic-state (DS) method in which donor and acceptor are represented with radical anions of the canonical base pairs adenine-thymine (AT) and guanine-cytosine (GC). In this approach, similar values of V(da) are obtained with the standard 6-31G(*) and extended 6-31+ +G(**) basis sets. Second, the electronic couplings are derived from lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (LUMOs) of neutral systems by using the generalized Mulliken-Hush or fragment charge methods. Because the radical-anion states of AT and GC are well reproduced by LUMOs of the neutral base pairs calculated without diffuse functions, the estimated values of V(da) are in good agreement with the couplings obtained for radical-anion states using the DS method. However, when the calculation of a neutral stack is carried out with diffuse functions, LUMOs of the system exhibit the dipole-bound character and cannot be used for estimating electronic couplings. Our calculations suggest that the ET matrix elements V(da) for models containing intrastrand thymine and cytosine bases are essentially larger than the couplings in complexes with interstrand pyrimidine bases. The matrix elements for excess electron transfer are found to be considerably smaller than the corresponding values for hole transfer and to be very responsive to structural changes in a DNA stack.     

Computational study of structure,electronic, and microscopic charge transport properties of small conjugated diketopyrrolopyrrole‐thiophene molecules

π‐Conjugated small molecules containing diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) and thiophene moieties represent a modern class of functional materials that exhibit promising charge transport properties and therefore have great potential as building blocks of active elements of electronic devices. As a starting point of this computational study, the molecular structure, electronic characteristics, and reorganization energies associated with electron or hole transfer are considered. Prediction of molecular crystal packing is followed by the calculation of couplings between adjacent molecules and detection of the effective charge transfer pathways. Finally, the rates of charge transfer process are evaluated. The obtained results shed light not only on the properties of materials containing low‐molecular species but also serve as a benchmark for further classical force‐field simulations of DPP‐based polymers.     

Modelling charge transfer reactions with the frozen density embedding formalism

The frozen density embedding (FDE) subsystem formulation of density-functional theory is a useful tool for studying charge transfer reactions. In this work charge-localized, diabatic states are generated directly with FDE and used to calculate electronic couplings of hole transfer reactions in two π-stacked nucleobase dimers of B-DNA: 5'-GG-3' and 5'-GT-3'. The calculations rely on two assumptions: the two-state model, and a small differential overlap between donor and acceptor subsystem densities. The resulting electronic couplings agree well with benchmark values for those exchange-correlation functionals that contain a high percentage of exact exchange. Instead, when semilocal GGA functionals are used the electronic couplings are grossly overestimated.     

Determination of band curvatures by angle-resolved two-photon photoemission in thin films of C60 on Ag(111)

The thickness-dependent interfacial band structure was determined for thin films of C(60) on Ag(111) by angle-resolved two-photon photoemission spectroscopy. Dispersions of molecular-orbital derived bands (HOMO, LUMO+1, and LUMO+2) were acquired, and limits were placed on their possible effective masses. A group theoretic approach is also incorporated to further understand the properties of these states. The HOMO, LUMO+1, and LUMO+2 bands possess (best-fit) effective masses of -7 m(e), -7 m(e), and -12 m(e), respectively. These values are consistent with theoretical calculations, averaged over the closely spaced subbands for each state, and provide practical limits on the effective fundamental charge-transport properties of C(60) films.     

Synthesis of novel aromatic nitroxides as potential DNA intercalators. An EPR spectroscopical and DFT computational study

The synthesis and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopic properties of three novel aromatic nitroxides and potential DNA intercalators, the carbazole-based 3,6-dimethylcarbazole-9-oxyl, as well as the acridane-based 9-acridanylidenemalonitrile-10-oxyl and 9-ethylacridanylidenecyanoacetate-10-oxyl, are described. The two acridane-based nitroxides can be isolated and are stable in solution as well as in the solid state for several days. Continuous wave X-band EPR measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrated that the spin density is delocalized over the whole molecule in all three cases. Furthermore, the DFT calculations provided insight into the molecular and electronic structures of these nitroxides and yielded hyperfine coupling constants which are in very good agreement with the experimental data allowing therefore an unambiguous assignment of the hyperfine couplings.     

CASSCF/CAS-PT2 study of hole transfer in stacked DNA nucleobases

CASSCF and CAS-PT2 calculations are performed for the ground and excited states of radical cations consisting of two and three nucleobases. The generalized Mulliken-Hush approach is employed for estimating electronic couplings for hole transfer in the pi-stacks. We compare the CASSCF results with data obtained within Koopmans' approximation. The calculations show that an excess charge in the ground and excited states in the systems is quite localized on a single base both at the CASSCF level and in Koopmans' picture. However, the CASSCF calculations point to a larger degree of localization and, in line with this, smaller transition dipole moments. The agreement between the CAS-PT2 corrected energy gaps and the values estimated with Koopmans' theorem is better, with the CAS-PT2 calculations giving somewhat smaller gaps. Overall, both factors result in smaller CASSCF/CAS-PT2 couplings, which are reduced by up to 40% of the couplings calculated using Koopmans' approximation. The tabulated data can be used as benchmark values for the electronic couplings of stacked nucleobases. For the base trimers, comparison of the results obtained within two- and three-state models show that the multistate treatment should be applied to derive reliable estimates. Finally, the superexchange approach to estimate the donor acceptor electronic coupling in the stacks GAG and GTG is considered.     

Remarkable Enhancement of Hole Mobility of Novel DA-D’-AD Small Molecules by Thermal Annealing: Effect of the D’-Bridge Block.

Conjugated small molecules are advanced semiconductor materials with attractive physicochemical and optoelectronic properties enabling the development of next-generation electronic devices. The charge carrier mobility of small molecules strongly influences the efficiency of organic and hybrid electronics based on them. Herein, we report the synthesis of four novel small molecules and their investigation with regard to the impact of molecular structure and thermal treatment of films on charge carriers’ mobility. The benzodithiophene-containing compounds (BDT) were shown to be more promising in terms of tuning the morphology upon thermal treatment. Impressive enhancement of hole mobilities by more than 50 times was found for annealed films based on a compound M4 comprising triisopropylsilyl-functionalized BDT core. The results provide a favorable experience and strategy for the rational design of state-of-the-art organic semiconductor materials (OSMs) and for improving their charge-transport characteristics.     

The Impact of Interlayer Electronic Coupling on Charge Transport in Organic Semiconductors: A Case Study on Titanylphthalocyanine Single Crystals

Traditionally, it is believed that three‐dimensional transport networks are preferable to those of lower dimensions. We demonstrate that inter‐layer electronic couplings may result in a drastic decrease of charge mobilities by utilizing field‐effect transistors (FET) based on two phases of titanyl phthalocyanine (TiOPc) crystals. The α‐phase crystals with electronic couplings along two dimensions show a maximum mobility up to 26.8 cm² V^?1 s^?1. In sharp contrast, the β‐phase crystals with extra significant inter‐layer electronic couplings show a maximum mobility of only 0.1 cm² V^?1 s^?1. Theoretical calculations on the bulk crystals and model slabs reveal that the inter‐layer electronic couplings for the β‐phase devices will diminish remarkably the device charge transport abilities owing to the coupling direction perpendicular to the current direction. This work provides new insights into the impact of the dimensionality and directionality of the packing arrangements on charge transport in organic semiconductors.     

A fast scheme to calculate electronic couplings between P3HT polymer units using diabatic orbitals for charge transfer dynamics simulations

We propose a fast and accurate calculation method to compute the electronic couplings between molecular units in a thiophene-ring-based polymer chain mimicking a real organic semiconducting polymer, poly(3-hexylthiophene). Through a unit block diabatization scheme, the method employed minimal number of diabatic orbitals to compute the site energies and electronic couplings, which were validated by comparing with benchmark density functional theory calculations. In addition, by using the obtained electronic couplings, a quantum dynamics simulation was carried out to propagate a hole initially localized in a thiophene-ring unit of the polymer chain. This work establishes a simple, efficient, and robust means for the simulation of electron or hole transfer processes in organic semiconducting materials, an important capability for study and understanding of the class of organic optoelectronic and photovoltaic materials. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

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.     

In-depth quantum chemical investigation of electro-optical and charge-transport properties of trans-3-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-nitrophenyl)prop-2-enenitrile

The structural, electro-optical and charge-transport properties of compound trans-3-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-nitrophenyl)prop-2-enenitrile (DMNPN) were studied using quantum chemical methods. The neutral, cation and anion molecular geometries were optimized in the ground state using density functional theory (DFT) at the restricted and unrestricted B3LYP/6-31G** level of theory. The excited state geometries were optimized by applying time-dependent DFT at the TD-B3LYP/6-31G** level of theory. The absorption and fluorescence wavelengths were calculated at the TD-CAM-B3LYP/6-31G** and TD-LC-BLYP/6-31G** levels of theory. The distribution pattern of the charge densities on the highest occupied molecular orbitals (HOMOs) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (LUMOs) are discussed. Intramolecular charge transfer was observed from the dimethoxyphenyl to (nitrophenyl)prop-2-enenitrile moieties. The detailed charge-transport behavior of the DMNPN molecule is investigated based on its ionization potential, electron affinity, hole and electron reorganization energies, hole and electron-transfer integrals, and hole and electron intrinsic mobilities. The total/partial densities of states and structure–property relationship are discussed in detail. The higher computed hole intrinsic mobility than electron intrinsic mobility reveals that DMNPN is an efficient hole-transport material.