Interfacial engineering of organic nanofibril heterojunctions into highly photoconductive materials

Photoconductive organic materials have gained increasing interest in various optoelectronics, such as sensors, photodetectors, and photovoltaics. However, the availability of such materials is very limited due to their intrinsic low charge carrier density and mobility. Here, we present a simple approach based on nanofibril heterojunction to achieve high photoconductivity with fast photoresponse, that is, interfacial engineering of electron donor (D) coating onto acceptor (A) nanofibers via optimization of hydrophobic interaction between long alkyl side-chains. Such nanofibril heterojunctions possess two prominent features that are critical for efficient photocurrent generation: the nanofibers both create a large D/A interface for increased charge separation and act as long-range transport pathways for photogenerated charge carriers toward the electrodes, and the alkyl groups employed not only enable effective surface adsorption of D molecules on the nanofibers for effective electron-transfer communication, but also spatially separate the photogenerated charge carriers to prevent their recombination. The reported approach represents a simple, adaptable method that allows for the development and optimization of photoconductive organic materials.     

Self-assembling porphyrins and phthalocyanines for photoinduced charge separation and charge transport

Large π-conjugated compounds are promising building blocks for organic thin-film electronics such as organic light-emitting diodes, organic field-effect transistors, and organic photovoltaics. Utilization of porphyrins and phthalocyanines for this purpose is highly fascinating because of their excellent electric, photophysical, and electrochemical properties as well as intense self-assembling abilities arising from π-π stacking interactions. This paper focuses on fundamental aspects of self-assembled structures that have been obtained from porphyrin and phthalocyanine building blocks and more complex composites for photoinduced charge separation and charge transport toward the potential applications to organic thin-film electronics.     

PAMAM-containing semiconducting polymers: Effect of dendritic side chains on optoelectronic and solid-state properties

Dendronized polymers are a particularly interesting platform for the preparation of advanced semiconductors given their high degree of functionalization, monodispersity, and bulkiness. Despite advantageous features, the incorporation of dendritic moieties in semiconducting polymers is still relatively underexplored, and the impact on the optoelectronic, thermomechanical, and solid-state properties are difficult to predict. This work focuses on the incorporation of polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendritic side chains to semicrystalline polymers based on diketopyrrolopyrrole. Using a versatile synthetic strategy based on the azide-alkyne Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, dendronized semiconducting polymers were prepared and the effect of the dendritic side chains on different properties were carefully characterized using different techniques. The dendritic side chains were found to reduce aggregation and crystallinity of the polymers in thin films. PAMAM-containing semiconducting polymers were also shown to have good charge transport properties in organic field-effect transistors, within the same order of magnitude to that of diketopyrrolopyrrole-based polymers bearing branched alkyl chains. This new design approach is particularly interesting to develop advanced semiconducting polymers given its synthetic versatility and the structural diversity of the dendronized moieties. Furthermore, the utilization of dendritic moieties in semiconducting polymers is a promising approach to fine-tune the thermomechanical properties toward semiconducting polymers for next-generation organic electronics.     

3,6‐Dialkylthieno[3,2‐b]thiophene moiety as a soluble and electron donating unit preserving the coplanarity of photovoltaic low band gap copolymers

It has been shown recently, that the presence of alkyl side chains at the 3‐positions on the thiophene rings placed next to 2,1,3‐benzothiadiazole core in the backbone of several conjugated polymers results in severe steric hindrance and prevents efficient planarity of the thiophene‐2,1,3‐benzothiadiazole‐thiophene (TBzT) segment. Both properties have a strong influence on the optoelectronic properties of the polymer and need to be considered when the polymer is to be used for organic electronics applications. In this work, we modified a previously synthesized oligothiophene copolymer, consisting of two 3,4′‐dialkyl‐2,2′‐bithiophene units attached to a 2,1,3‐benzothiadiazole unit (TBzT segment) and a thieno[3,2‐b]thiophene unit, by optimizing the lateral alkyl side chains following a density functional theory investigation. It is demonstrated that eliminating the alkyl side chains from the 3‐positions of the TBzT segment and anchoring them onto the thieno[3,2‐b]thiophene, using an efficient synthesis of the 3,6‐dihexylthieno[3,2‐b]thiophene unit, allows us to reduce the energy band gap. In addition, the chemical modification leads to a better charge transport and to an enhanced photovoltaic efficiency of polymer/fullerene blends. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Steric effect and mobility of the alkyl chain in regio‐irregular poly‐3‐alkylthiophenes

The physicochemical properties of polyalkylthiophenes with various side‐chain length were widely investigated in order to reveal the functions of alkyl side‐chains in these polymers. The effects of the side‐chains on the properties of polyalkylthiophenes can be explained by their steric hindrance and mobility. The steric hindrance of alkyl chain affected not only the polymerization mechanism of the monomers but also the redox potential, interchain distance, charge transport properties, and film morphology. The mobility of the side‐chain influences the rate of dedoping, heat of transitions of polymers. The structure regio‐regularity, stability of polarons/bipolarons, film morphologies, and interchain interactions determine the optical and electric properties of polyalkylthiophenes. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 37: 1763–1772, 1999     

Single-Molecule Charge-Transport Modulation Induced by Steric Effects of Side Alkyl Chains

The experimental investigation of side-chain effects on intramolecular charge transport in π-conjugated molecules is essential but remains challenging. Herein, the dependence of intra-molecular conductance on the nature of branching alkyl chains is investigated through a combination of the scanning tunneling microscope break junction (STM-BJ) technique and density functional theory. Three thiophene-flanked diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) derivatives with different branching alkyl chains (isopentane, 3-methylheptane, and 9-methylnonadecane) are used with phenylthiomethyl groups as the anchoring groups. The results of single-molecule conductance measurements show that as the alkyl chain becomes longer, the torsional angles between the aromatic rings increase due to steric crowding, and therefore, the molecular conductance of DPP decreases due to reduction in conjugation. Both theoretical simulations and ¹H NMR spectra demonstrate that the planarity of the DPPs is directly reduced after introducing longer branching alkyl chains, which leads to a reduced conductance. This work indicates that the effect of the insulating side chain on the single-molecule conductance cannot be neglected, which should be considered for the design of future organic semiconducting materials.     

Theoretical Characterization of Charge Transport in One‐Dimensional Collinear Arrays of Organic Conjugated Molecules

A great deal of interest has recently focused on host–guest systems consisting of one‐dimensional collinear arrays of conjugated molecules encapsulated in the channels of organic or inorganic matrices. Such architectures allow for controlled charge and energy migration processes between the interacting guest molecules and are thus attractive in the field of organic electronics. In this context, we characterize here at a quantum‐chemical level the molecular parameters governing charge transport in the hopping regime in 1D arrays built with different types of molecules. We investigate the influence of several parameters (such as the symmetry of the molecule, the presence of terminal substituents, and the molecular size) and define on that basis the molecular features required to maximize the charge carrier mobility within the channels. In particular, we demonstrate that a strong localization of the molecular orbitals in push–pull compounds is generally detrimental to the charge transport properties.     

Self assembled monolayers on silicon for molecular electronics

We present an overview of various aspects of the self-assembly of organic monolayers on silicon substrates for molecular electronics applications. Different chemical strategies employed for grafting the self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanes having different chain lengths on native oxide of Si or on bare Si have been reviewed. The utility of different characterization techniques in determination of the thickness, molecular ordering and orientation, surface coverage, growth kinetics and chemical composition of the SAMs has been discussed by choosing appropriate examples. The metal counterelectrodes are an integral part of SAMs for measuring their electrical properties as well as using them for molecular electronic devices. A brief discussion on the variety of options available for the deposition of metal counterelectrodes, that is, soft metal contacts, vapor deposition and soft lithography, has been presented. Various theoretical models, namely, tunneling (direct and Fowler-Nordheim), thermionic emission, Poole-Frenkel emission and hopping conduction, used for explaining the electronic transport in dielectric SAMs have been outlined and, some experimental data on alkane SAMs have been analyzed using these models. It has been found that short alkyl chains show excellent agreement with tunneling models; while more experimental data on long alkyl chains are required to understand their transport mechanism(s). Finally, the concepts and realization of various molecular electronic components, that is, diodes, resonant tunnel diodes, memories and transistors, based on appropriate architecture of SAMs comprising of alkyl chains (sigma- molecule) and conjugated molecules (pi-molecule) have been presented.     

Synthesis of Poly(benzothiadiazole‐co‐dithienobenzodithiophenes) and Effect of Thiophene Insertion for High‐Performance Polymer Solar Cells

We describe herein the synthesis of novel donor–acceptor conjugated polymers with dithienobenzodithiophenes (DTBDT) as the electron donor and 2,1,3‐benzothiadiazole as the electron acceptor for high‐performance organic photovoltaics (OPVs). We studied the effects of strategically inserting thiophene into the DTBDT as a substituent on the skeletal structure on the opto‐electronic performances of fabricated devices. From UV/Vis absorption, electrochemical, and field‐effect transistor analyses, we found that the thiophene‐containing DTBDT derivative can substantially increase the orbital overlap area between adjacent conjugated chains and thus dramatically enhance charge‐carrier mobility up to 0.55 cm² V^?1 s^?1. The outstanding charge‐transport characteristics of this polymer allowed the realization of high‐performance organic solar cells with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.1 %. Detailed studies on the morphological factors that enable the maximum PCE of the polymer solar cells are discussed along with a hole/electron mobility analysis based on the space‐charge‐limited current model.     

Theoretical study on the charge transport properties of triphenylene discogens with a phenylpropionyloxy or 3-phenylpropenoyloxy side chain

Charge transport is one of the most important properties in organic materials. Charge transport properties of triphenylene discogens with a phenylpropionyloxy or 3-phenylpropenoyloxy side chain have been investigated computationally on the basis of semi-classical Marcus theory. The results show that three triphenylene derivatives have high charge mobility. Title compounds have much better electronic mobility than the triphenylene. The triphenylenes containing 3-phenylpropenoyloxy have better hole mobility, but smaller electronic mobility than the triphenylenes with phenylpropionyloxy. For the triphenylene discogens with a phenylpropionyloxy, the longer the alkloxy chains, the better the positive charge transfer rate, but the smaller the negative charge transfer rate. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50673069), the Research Foundation of Education Bureau of Sichuan Province, China (Grant No. 07ZA093), and Scientific Research Foundation of Sichuan Normal University for Innovation Groups ( Grant No. 025156)     

Side-chain tunability of furan-containing low-band-gap polymers provides control of structural order in efficient solar cells

The solution-processability of conjugated polymers in organic solvents has classically been achieved by modulating the size and branching of alkyl substituents appended to the backbone. However, these substituents impact structural order and charge transport properties in thin-film devices. As a result, a trade-off must be found between material solubility and insulating alkyl content. It was recently shown that the substitution of furan for thiophene in the backbone of the polymer PDPP2FT significantly improves polymer solubility, allowing for the use of shorter branched side chains while maintaining high device efficiency. In this report, we use PDPP2FT to demonstrate that linear alkyl side chains can be used to promote thin-film nanostructural order. In particular, linear side chains are shown to shorten π-π stacking distances between backbones and increase the correlation lengths of both π-π stacking and lamellar spacing, leading to a substantial increase in the efficiency of bulk heterojunction solar cells.     

Enhancing the healing ability and charge transport thermal stability of a diketopyrrolopyrrole based conjugated polymer by incorporating coumarin groups in the side chains

In this paper, we present a new design strategy for healable polymeric semiconductors, which are demanding for the future flexible electronics, by incorporating coumarin groups in the polymer side chains. The selection of coumarin groups is based on the fact that photo-dimerization can occur to coumarins upon UV light irradiation, thus side chains of conjugated polymers with coumarins can be cross-linked. The photo-crosslinking of side chains has negligible effect on the thin film morphology and interchain packing order for the DPP-based conjugated polymer PDPP4T-DCM with coumarins in the side chains. However, the photo-crosslinking can facilitate the repair of the mechanically damaged thin film of PDPP4T-DCM and the recovery of the semiconducting properties. Additionally, the photo-crosslinking due to the coumarins in the side chains can lock thin film morphology and thus improve the thermal stability of charge transport.     

Controlled Growth of Porphyrin Wires at a Solid‐Liquid Interface

Bis(zinc porphyrin) scaffolds bearing C₈ or C₁₈ alkyl chains and imidazole end groups self‐assembled in a head‐to‐tail fashion into multi‐porphyrin assemblies on both HOPG and mica. Due to weaker molecule surface‐interactions, longer arrays formed on mica than on HOPG. In both cases, it was essential first to generate monomers that were drop casted on the surface, then to allow time for the bis(zinc porphyrins) to assemble. Although thicker fibrous assemblies were observed with the C₈ alkyl substituents than with the longer chains, noncovalent assemblies up to 1 μm long were observed for each molecule. These investigations provide a reproducible, noncovalent method to grow porphyrin arrays that may be of interest in molecular electronics for charge transport.     

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.     

Functional Corannulene: Diverse Structures,Enhanced Charge Transport,and Tunable Optoelectronic Properties

Chemical functionalization of various hydrocarbons, such as coronene, corannulene, and so forth, shows good promise in electronics applications because of their tunable optoelectronic properties. By using quantum chemical calculations, we have investigated the changes in the corannulene buckybowl structure, which greatly affect its electronic and optical properties when functionalized with different electron‐withdrawing imide groups. We find that the chemical nature and position of functional groups strongly regulate the stacking geometry, π‐stacking interactions, and electronic structure. Herein, a range of optoelectronic properties and structure–property relationships of various imide‐functionalized corannulenes are explored and rationalized in detail. In terms of carrier mobility, we find that the functionalization strongly affects the reorganization energy of corannulene, while the enhanced stacking improves hopping integrals, favoring the carrier mobility of crystals of pentafluorophenylcorannulene‐5‐monoimide. The study shows a host of emerging optoelectronic properties and enhancements in the charge‐transport characteristics of functionalized corannulene, which may find possible semiconductor and electronics applications.     

Theoretical comparative studies on transport properties of pentacene,pentathienoacene, and 6,13‐dichloropentacene

Pentacene derivative 6,13‐dichloropentacene (DCP) is one of the latest additions to the family of organic semiconductors with a great potential for use in transistors. We carry out a detailed theoretical calculation for DCP, with systematical comparison to pentacene, pentathienoacene (PTA, the thiophene equivalent of pentacene), to gain insights in the theoretical design of organic transport materials. The charge transport parameters and carrier mobilities are investigated from the first‐principles calculations, based on the widely used Marcus electron transfer theory and quantum nuclear tunneling model, coupled with random walk simulation. Molecular structure and the crystal packing type are essential to understand the differences in their transport behaviors. With the effect of molecule modification, significant one‐dimensional π‐stacks are found within the molecular layer in PTA and DCP crystals. The charge transport along the a‐axis plays a dominant role for the carrier mobilities in the DCP crystal due to the strong transfer integrals within the a‐axis. Pentacene shows a relatively large 3D mobility. This is attributed to the relatively uniform electronic couplings, which thus provides more transport pathways. PTA has a much smaller 3D mobility than pentacene and DCP for the obvious increase of the reorganization energy with the introduction of thiophene. It is found that PTA and DCP exhibit lower HOMO (highest occupied molecular orbital) levels and better environmental stability, indicating the potential applications in organic electronics. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

New Polymers for Optimizing Organic Photovoltaic Cell Performances

The performance of an organic solar cell critically depends on the materials used in the active layer. Desirable characteristics of active layer materials include an intense optical absorption covering broad range of the solar spectrum to maximize photon capture, the ability to effectively separate charges upon photo‐excitation, high charge mobility to allow efficient charge transport to the electrodes, and suitable HOMO and LUMO levels to ensure a high device voltage. In order to optimize these properties simultaneously, we have designed and synthesized conjugated polymers containing alternating electron‐donating and electron‐accepting units. Based on one of the low band gap polymers we designed and synthesized previously, poly[2,6‐(4,4‐bis‐(2‐ethylhexyl)‐4H‐cyclopenta[2,1‐b:3,4‐b′]dithiophene)‐alt‐4,7‐(2,1,3‐benzothiadiazole)], we carried out both side chain and main chain modifications in order to improve performance even further. By incorporating fluorene repeating units into the main chain, it is possible to adjust the absorption characteristics of the polymers while maintaining a desirable HOMO level and good charge carrier mobility. The solubility profile of the polymer can be adjusted by modifying the side chains, and soluble polymer with mobility as high as 7×10^?2 cm²/Vs is realized when a combination of 2‐ethylhexy and hexyl groups are used as side chains. These polymers should be promising candidates for high performance solar cells according to a recently published model (3).     

P-type Polymers in Semitransparent Organic Photovoltaics

P-type polymers are polymeric semiconducting materials that conduct holes and have extensive applications in optoelectronics such as organic photovoltaics. Taking the advantage of intrinsic discontinuous light absorption of organic semiconductors, semitransparent organic photovoltaics (STOPVs) present compelling opportunities in various potential applications such as building-integrated photovoltaics, agrivoltaics, automobiles, and wearable electronics. The characteristics of p-type polymers, including optical, electronic, and morphological properties, determine the performance of STOPVs, and the requirements for p-type polymers differ between opaque organic photovoltaics and STOPVs. Hence, in this Minireview, recent advances of p-type polymers used in STOPVs are systematically summarized, with emphasis on the effects of chemical structures, conformation structures, and aggregation structures of p-type polymers on the performance of STOPVs. Furthermore, new design concepts and guidelines are also proposed for p-type polymers to facilitate the future development of high-performance STOPVs.     

Isolating the effect of torsional defects on mobility and band gap in conjugated polymers

Conjugated polymers represent a promising class of organic semiconductors with potential applications in a variety of molecular devices. Poly(3-alkylthiophene)s, in particular, are garnering interest due to their large charge carrier mobility and band gap in the visible region of the spectrum. Defects play a pivotal role in determining the performance of polymer electronics, and yet the function of specific types of defects is still largely unknown. Density functional theory calculations of alkyl-substituted oligothiophenes are used to isolate the effect of static inter-ring torsion defects on key parameters such as electronic coupling between rings and band gap. Results have potential implications both for the fundamental understanding of intramolecular charge transport and for improving processing in organic devices.