Synthesis and characterization of spin-coatable tert-amine molecules for hole-transport in organic light-emitting diodes

The synthesis of two tert-amine-based, non-fluorescent, hole-transport molecules (4,4′-[bis-{(4-di-n-hexylamino)benzylideneamino)]stilbene (DHABS) and 4,4′-[bis-{(4-diphenylamino)benzylideneamino}]stilbene) (DPABS) that are suitable for spin coating on indium tin oxide (ITO) for electronic device fabrication is described and compared with the widely used TPD. Electroluminescence occurred at a turn-on voltage of 7-8 V in ITO/hole-transport layer (HTL, spin coated)/Alq₃/Al devices.     

Red-emission organic light-emitting diodes based on solution-processable molecules with triphenylamine core and benzothiadiazole-thiophene arms

We report red-emission organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on solution-processable organic molecules with triphenylamine (TPA) as core and benzothiadiazole-(4-hexyl)thiophene (BT-4HT) as arms.Bi-armed molecule B(TPA-BT-4HT) and star-shaped (tri-armed) molecule S(TPA-BT-4HT) both show pure red-emission peaked at 646 and 657 nm,respectively.The red-emission OLED with S(TPA-BT-4HT) as the emitting layer displays a higher maximum luminance of ca.7794 cd/m2 and a maximum EL efficiency of 0.91 cd/A.     

一维有机微纳米光功能材料研究进展

近年来,一维有机小分子微纳材料因为其新颖的光学性能和在未来小型化器件中的广泛应用,受到了人们越来越多的关注.相比于传统无机半导体材料,有机小分子材料具有结构多样性、功能可设计性、易大量制备、易机械加工等显著优势.本文将从一维有机小分子纳米材料的制备方法、形貌调控、光学性能(如光波导、受激发射、电致发光等),及其在光学器件上的应用出发,对近十年来的相关研究进展及成果进行总结和介绍.     

Synthesis and characterization of photorefractive polymers with triphenylamine unit and NLO chromophore unit on a side chain

Acrylate‐type copolymers (TPA‐DCV) consisting of triphenylamine (TPA) unit as a hole transport agent and dicyanovinyl aniline (DCV) as a second‐order nonlinear optical (NLO) chromophore on a side chain were synthesized. The polymers showed good solubility and sufficient morphological stability after film formation. The diffraction efficiency and gain coefficient increased as glass transition temperature decreased TPA‐DCV composite doped with fullerene (C₆₀) and dibutyl phthalate had a high photoconductivity of 5.1 × 10⁻¹² S/cm at the applied electric field of 50 V/µm. Diffraction efficiency and response rate were measured as functions of the parameters determining the photoconductivity (e.g. applied electric field, the density of the photocharges generated and writing beam intensity). The maximum diffraction efficiency and gain coefficient were 12.9% and 64 cm⁻¹, respectively, at an applied electric field of 80 V/µm. The maximum response time of 700 msec was obtained at the applied electric field of 80 V/µm. Photoconductivity, response rate and diffraction efficiency increased with the increase of the applied electric field. Field dependence of the response rate is attributed to the charge generation efficiency and/or the drift mobility. A similar power dependence of the photoconductivity and the response rate on the writing beam intensity was observed. The response rate and diffraction efficiency showed a good linear relationship with the logarithm of the photoconductivity. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optical waveguides at micro/nanoscale based on functional small organic molecules

Optical waveguides synthesized at the micro/nanoscale have drawn great interest for their potential applications in high speed miniaturized photonic integrations. In this Perspective article, we mainly focus on the related works on active optical waveguides based on functional small organic molecules in micro/nano regime. We begin with a general overview of recent progress in sub-wavelength optical waveguides, including the development of waveguide materials of inorganic semiconductors, polymers, and small organic molecules. Then brief highlights are put on the recently reported organic optical waveguides with various unique optical properties induced by the ordered molecular aggregations in the micro/nano-sized solid-state structures, such as polarized emission, lasing, aggregation-induced enhanced emission, etc. This article concludes with a summary and our personal view about the direction of future development in organic opto-functional waveguides as photonic devices.     

Electrochemical behavior of small biological molecules at organic donor—acceptor electrodes in aqueous media

The electrochemical behavior of NADH, xanthine, uric acid, 6-mercaptopurine, 6-thioxanthine, dopamine and ascorbic acid was investigated at the organic metal-like polymer paste electrodes, tetrathiafulvalene- and N-methylphenazene-tetracyanoquinodimethane. The reactivity of small biological molecules at polymer paste electrodes is generally lower than at most active graphite electrodes. Typical detection limits of about 10^?5 M and the typical upper limit of linearity of 10^?3 M are observed for the compounds studied.     

Two star-shaped small molecule donors based on benzodithiophene unit for organic solar cells

Star-shaped small molecules have attracted great attention for organic solar cells(OSCs) because they have three-dimensional charge-transport characteristics, strong light absorption capacities and easily tunable energy levels. Herein, three-and four-armed star-shaped small molecule donors, namely BDT-3 Th and BDT-4 Th, respectively, have been successfully designed and synthesized, which used benzodithiophene(BDT) as the central unit. The two star-shaped intermediates(2 a and 2 b) could be simul...     

Atomic force microscopy characterization of room-temperature adlayers of small organic molecules through graphene templating

We report on the use of graphene templating to investigate the room-temperature structure and dynamics of weakly bound adlayers at the interfaces between solids and vapors of small organic molecules. Monolayer graphene sheets are employed to preserve and template molecularly thin adlayers of tetrahydrofuran (THF) and cyclohexane on atomically flat mica substrates, thus permitting a structural characterization of the adlayers under ambient conditions through atomic force microscopy. We found the first two adlayers of both molecules adsorb in a layer-by-layer fashion, and atomically flat two-dimensional islands are observed for both the first and the second adlayers. THF adlayers form initially as rounded islands but, over a period of weeks, evolve into faceted islands, suggesting that the adlayers possess both liquid and solid properties at room temperature. Cyclohexane adlayers form crystal-like faceted islands and are immobile under the graphene template. The heights of the second adlayers of THF and cyclohexane are measured to be 0.44 ± 0.02 and 0.50 ± 0.02 nm, respectively, in good agreement with the layer thicknesses in the monoclinic crystal structure of THF and the Phase I "plastic crystal" structure of cyclohexane. The first adlayers appear slightly thinner for both molecules, indicative of interactions of the molecules with the mica substrate.     

Macrocyclic triphenylamine based organic dyes for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells

A novel class of organic D-π-A dyes employing macrocyclic triphenylamine dimer as electron donor was designed and synthesized for dye-sensitized solar cells. The prepared compounds showed high chemical and elelctrochemical stabilities as well as good long-wave absorption. Photovoltaic devices based on these dyes showed high open circuit voltage (higher than that of N3) and achieved a solar energy to electricity conversion efficiency of 6.31%. All the performances indicate the dyes containing macrocyclic triphenylamine dimer is a good candidate for dyes sensitized solar cells.     

A series of dithienobenzodithiophene based small molecules for highly efficient organic solar cells

Three acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) small molecules DCAODTBDT, DRDTBDT and DTBDTBDT using dithieno[2,3-d:2′,3′-d′]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene as the central building block, octyl cyanoacetate, 3-octylrhodanine and thiobarbituric acid as the end groups were designed and synthesized as donor materials in solution-processed photovoltaic cells (OPVs). The impacts of these different electron withdrawing end groups on the photophysical properties, energy levels, charge carrier mobility, morphologies of blend films, and their photovoltaic properties have been systematically investigated. OPVs device based on DRDTBDT gave the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.34%, which was significantly higher than that based on DCAODTBDT (4.83%) or DTBDTBDT (3.39%). These results indicate that rather dedicated and balanced consideration of absorption, energy levels, morphology, mobility, etc. for the design of small-molecule-based OPVs (SM-OPVs) and systematic investigations are highly needed to achieve high performance for SM-OPVs.     

New star-shaped molecules derived from thieno[3,2-b]thiophene unit and triphenylamine

A series of new substituted triphenylamine (TPA) derivatives with alkyl thieno[3,2-b]thiophene and thiophene units were synthesized in a combinatorial manner. Suzuki coupling of a dioxaborolane TPA derivative and 2-bromo-3-nonylthieno[3,2-b]thiophene or Stille coupling of fresh stannyl thieno[3,2-b]thiophene was used. All compounds were characterized by ¹H and ¹³C NMR, HRMS, UV-vis spectrometry and DSC measurements. It was demonstrated that the optical and thermal properties of these materials can be tuned by varying both the conjugation length and thienothiophene and thiophene combination on the TPA branches. Moreover, the measured molar extinction coefficients were increasing from 63,000 (λ_max = 354 nm) to 131,000 L mol⁻¹ cm⁻¹ (λ_max = 428 nm) for TPA-thienothiophenes and TPA-bithiophene thienothiophenes, respectively. Some of them showed molecular glass behavior.     

Modulation of protein-protein interactions with small organic molecules

Many proteins exert their biological roles as components of complexes, and the functions of proteins are often determined by their specific interactions with other proteins. Because of the central importance of protein-protein interactions for cellular processes, the ability to interfere with specific protein-protein interactions provides a powerful means of influencing the function of selected proteins within the cell. Cell-permeable small organic modulators of protein-protein interactions are thus highly desirable tools both for the study of physiological cellular processes and for the treatment of numerous diseased states. Herein a number of protein-protein interactions that are considered to be pharmaceutical targets are presented, which will familiarize the reader with the strategies that have been employed for the successful identification of small molecule modulators of these protein-protein interactions. These encouraging examples suggest that combined research efforts in the areas of functional proteomics, assay development, and organic synthesis will open up novel possibilities for the treatment of human diseases in the future.     

Mapping the frontier electronic structures of triphenylamine based organic dyes at TiO2 interfaces

The frontier electronic structures of a series of organic dye molecules containing a triphenylamine moiety, a thiophene moiety and a cyanoacrylic acid moiety have been investigated by photoelectron spectroscopy (PES), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) and resonant photoelectron spectroscopy (RPES). The experimental results were compared to electronic structure calculations on the molecules, which are used to confirm and enrich the assignment of the spectra. The approach allows us to experimentally measure and interpret the basic valence energy level structure in the dye, including the highest occupied energy level and how it depends on the interaction between the different units. Based on N 1s X-ray absorption and emission spectra we also obtain insight into the structure of the excited states, the molecular orbital composition and dynamics. Together the results provide an experimentally determined energy level map useful in the design of these types of materials. Included are also results indicating femtosecond charge redistribution at the dye/TiO(2) interface.     

Enantioselective organocatalytic aldol reaction using small organic molecules

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Enantioselective reactions catalyzed by small organic molecules (asymmetric organocatalysis) are a comparatively new and popular segment in the area of contemporary research in asymmetric synthesis. The great synthetic utility of the aldol reaction for the formation of C–C bonds has geared up for a hard battle for research in this area resulting in a rapid evolution of tremendous highly enantioselective chiral catalysts. This review emphasizes asymmetric direct aldol reactions catalyzed by small enantioenriched organic molecules, particularly those involving enamine catalysis through primary and secondary amines. We have made significant efforts to include several important contributions from different groups in this area.     

Prediction of solvents suitable for crystallization of small organic molecules

Selection of suitable solvent is essential for crystallization of pharmaceuticals. Based on chemical structures of 6397 compounds and 15 single solvents that were used to obtain their single crystals, correlations between the molecular characteristics and the solvents have been investigated by cheminformatics methods. Decision-tree and Bayesian-probability methods have been applied to make classification models. These two models are complementary in character in the present case. It has been proven that the prediction of the solvent rankings for particular compounds by use of the classification models is satisfactory from the practical point of view. The present study has demonstrated that cheminformatics methods could greatly help rational crystallization of small organic molecules such as pharmaceuticals.     

Organic electroluminescent device based on electropolymerized polybithiophene as the hole-transport layer

An ultrathin film of polybithiophene (PBTh), used in organic electroluminescent (EL) devices, was generated by an electrochemical method with a conducting indium tin oxide (ITO) glass as the working electrode. The light-emitting layer could be deposited directly onto the PBTh by using spin coating for fabrication of the organic EL devices. It was found that the film of PBTh as the hole-transport layer for the EL device could effectively raise the EL intensity and efficiency. The EL intensity of the ITO/PBTh/emitting layer/Al device is about 100 times as strong as that of the ITO/emitting layer/Al device at the same current density of 50 mA/cm².     

Unusual assembly of small organic building molecules in common solvent

During the process of self-association, reaching a thermodynamic equilibrium state in dilute solution is usually very fast, taking at most seconds for small organic (such as surfactants) solutions and hours for polymer solutions. It is very rare that days are necessary for soluble small organic molecules to reach thermodynamic stability in dilute solutions. This work reports such an unusually slow association of two polymerizable organic molecules, HOOC(CH2)3CCCC(CH2)3COOH and (EtO)3Si(CH2)3NH2, in their common solvent. The self-organization process of above complexes spanned several minutes to several days, depending on their concentrations. The morphologies of resultant aggregates, ranging from vesicles to solid spheres and to hollow spheres, were also tunable by varying the molar ratios of two precursors. Enriched functional COOH/NH2 groups on the aggregate surface can attach various antibodies, which endow the nanaoparticles with great potential applications as targeted drug-delivery vehicles. In addition, as-synthesized hybrid aggregates could be further stabilized by either addition reaction of diacetylenic acid or hydrolysis and condensation reactions of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane. In particular, the derived polydiacetylenic aggregates demonstrate a thermochromatic property and may be applied as sensing materials. Those novel phenomena, along with the simplicity in the preparation of aggregates, make the system promising in addressing related theoretical problems and practical applications.     

Efficient overlay of small organic molecules using 3D pharmacophores

Aligning and overlaying two or more bio-active molecules is one of the key tasks in computational drug discovery and bio-activity prediction. Especially chemical-functional molecule characteristics from the view point of a macromolecular target represented as a 3D pharmacophore are the most interesting similarity measure when describing and analyzing macromolecule-ligand interaction. In this study, a novel approach for aligning rigid three-dimensional molecules according to their chemical-functional pharmacophoric features is presented and compared to the overlay of experimentally determined poses in a comparable macromolecule coordinate frame. The presented approach identifies optimal chemical feature pairs using distance and density characteristics obtained by correlating pharmacophoric geometries and thus proves to be faster than existing combinatorial alignment methods and creates more reasonable alignments than pure atom-based methods. Examples will be provided to demonstrate the feasibility, speed and intuitiveness of this method.     

Transport and separation of small organic molecules through nanotubules.

An electroless plating method was applied to deposit Au onto the surfaces and the walls of pores of polycarbonate membranes to prepare gold nanotubules. The nanotubules were modified with cysteine (Cys) or with carbamidine thiocyante (Gua). The effects of modifiers and of the fine structure of organic molecules on the transport properties of those molecules through the gold nanotubules were investigated. Studies show that the hydrophilicity of modifiers and the planar structure of permeating molecules clearly affect the transport of small organic molecules in gold nanotubules. Tryptophan (Try) and vitamin B(2) (VB(2)) was cleanly separated at pH 6.8.     

Achieving room temperature phosphorescence from organic small molecules on amino acid skeleton

Room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) generated by small molecules has attracted great attention due to their unique potentials for biosensor, bioimaging and security protection. While, the design of RTP materials is extremely challenging for organic small molecules in non-crystalline solid state. Herein, we report a new strategy for achieving non-crystalline organic small molecules with RTP emission by modifying different phosphors onto diphenylalanine or phenylalanine derivatives. Benefiting from the skeletal structure of the amino acid derivatives, there are intermolecular hydrogen bond formation and rigidification effect, thereby minimizing the intermolecular motions and enhancing their RTP performance