Novel low-band-gap conjugated polymers using an alternating donor/acceptor repeat unit

e-Polymers ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Phimwipha Piyakulawat ◽  
Anusit Keawprajak ◽  
Anon Chindaduang ◽  
Anke Helfer ◽  
Udom Asawapirom

AbstractA series of new π-conjugated donor-acceptor copolymers, based on a naphthalene-bisimide moiety as the electron-acceptor and connected to either thiophene or dialkylfluorene as the electron-donor, were synthesized. The polymers are soluble in common organic solvents. The UV-Vis spectra of the copolymers in chloroform showed two absorption maxima at higher energies (ca. 301 - 364 nm), assigned to the π-π * transition, and at a lower energy (ca. 512 - 595 nm), ascribed to the intramolecular charge transfer between donor and acceptor units. Cyclic voltammetry revealed that the polymers were susceptible to both electrochemical oxidation and reduction, and they had a LUMO and HOMO levels ranging from -4.07 to -3.80 eV and -6.13 to -5.64 eV, respectively. The energy band gaps were estimated to be 1.48 - 2.06 eV. These results represent a positive step towards making novel compounds suitable for electronic applications.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ya-Jie Li ◽  
Wei-Rong Cui ◽  
Qiao-Qiao Jiang ◽  
Qiong Wu ◽  
Ru-Ping Liang ◽  
...  

AbstractElectrochemiluminescence (ECL) plays a key role in analysis and sensing because of its high sensitivity and low background. Its wide applications are however limited by a lack of highly tunable ECL luminophores. Here we develop a scalable method to design ECL emitters of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) in aqueous medium by simultaneously restricting the donor and acceptor to the COFs’ tight electron configurations and constructing high-speed charge transport networks through olefin linkages. This design allows efficient intramolecular charge transfer for strong ECL, and no exogenous poisonous co-reactants are needed. Olefin-linked donor-acceptor conjugated COFs, systematically synthesized by combining non-ECL active monomers with C2v or C3v symmetry, exhibit strong ECL signals, which can be boosted by increasing the chain length and conjugation of monomers. The present concept demonstrates that the highly efficient COF-based ECL luminophores can be precisely designed, providing a promising direction toward COF-based ECL phosphors.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Shee ◽  
Martin Head-Gordon

Electronically-excited states characterized by intramolecular charge-transfer play an essential role in many biological processes and optical devices. The ability to make quantitative ab initio predictions of the relative energetics involved is a challenging yet desirable goal, especially for large molecules in solution. In this work we present a data set of 61 experimental measurements of absorption and emission processes, both in the gas phase and solvents representing a broad range of polarities, which involve intramolecular charge-transfer mediated by a non-zero, “twisted” dihedral angle between one or more donor and acceptor subunits. Among a variety of density functionals investigated within the framework of linear-response theory, the “optimally tuned” LRC-ωPBE functional, which utilizes a system-specific yet non-empirical procedure to specify the range-separation parameter, emerges as the preferred choice. For the entire set of excitation energies, involving changes in dipole moment ranging from 4 to >20 Debye, the mean signed and absolute errors are 0.02 and 0.18 eV, respectively (compared, e.g., to -0.30 and 0.30 for PBE0, 0.44 and 0.47 for LRC-ωPBEh, 0.83 and 0.83 for ωB97X-V). The performance of polarizable continuum solvation models for these charge-transfer excited states is closely examined, and clear trends emerge when measurements corresponding to the four small DMABN-like molecules and a charged species are excluded. We make the case that the large errors found only for small molecules in the gas phase and weak solvents cannot be expected to improve via the optimal tuning procedure, which enforces a condition that is exact only in the wellseparated donor-acceptor limit, and present empirical evidence implicating the outsized importance for small donor-acceptor systems of relaxation effects that cannot be accounted for by linear-response TDDFT within the adiabatic approximation. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of the optimally tuned density functional approach by targeting the charge-transfer states of a large biomimetic model system for light-harvesting structures in Photosystem II.


Author(s):  
Hector Gerardo Miranda-Salinas ◽  
Andrew P Monkman ◽  
Chih-Hao Chang ◽  
Hao-Che Kao ◽  
Dian Luo ◽  
...  

Donor-Donor’-Acceptor molecules where the Donor’ bridges the Donor and Acceptor have different possible interaction pathways for charge transfer. Here we study a series of Donor-Donor’-Acceptor molecules, having the same Acceptor...


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Shee ◽  
Martin Head-Gordon

Electronically-excited states characterized by intramolecular charge-transfer play an essential role in many biological processes and optical devices. The ability to make quantitative ab initio predictions of the relative energetics involved is a challenging yet desirable goal, especially for large molecules in solution. In this work we present a data set of 61 experimental measurements of absorption and emission processes, both in the gas phase and solvents representing a broad range of polarities, which involve intramolecular charge-transfer mediated by a non-zero, “twisted” dihedral angle between one or more donor and acceptor subunits. Among a variety of density functionals investigated within the framework of linear-response theory, the “optimally tuned” LRC-ωPBE functional, which utilizes a system-specific yet non-empirical procedure to specify the range-separation parameter, emerges as the preferred choice. For the entire set of excitation energies, involving changes in dipole moment ranging from 4 to >20 Debye, the mean signed and absolute errors are 0.02 and 0.18 eV, respectively (compared, e.g., to -0.30 and 0.30 for PBE0, 0.44 and 0.47 for LRC-ωPBEh, 0.83 and 0.83 for ωB97X-V). The performance of polarizable continuum solvation models for these charge-transfer excited states is closely examined, and clear trends emerge when measurements corresponding to the four small DMABN-like molecules and a charged species are excluded. We make the case that the large errors found only for small molecules in the gas phase and weak solvents cannot be expected to improve via the optimal tuning procedure, which enforces a condition that is exact only in the wellseparated donor-acceptor limit, and present empirical evidence implicating the outsized importance for small donor-acceptor systems of relaxation effects that cannot be accounted for by linear-response TDDFT within the adiabatic approximation. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of the optimally tuned density functional approach by targeting the charge-transfer states of a large biomimetic model system for light-harvesting structures in Photosystem II.


Author(s):  
Shahidul Alam ◽  
Vojtech Nádaždy ◽  
Tomáš Váry ◽  
Christian Friebe ◽  
Rico Meitzner ◽  
...  

Energy level alignments at the organic donor–acceptor interface cannot be predicted from cyclic voltammetry. Onsets for joint density of states and charge generation, reveal cases of energy uphill and – newly observed – downhill charge generation.


Author(s):  
Haofan Yang ◽  
Xiaobo Li ◽  
Reiner Sebastian Sprick ◽  
Andrew I. Cooper

A library of 237 organic binary/ternary nanohybrids consisting of conjugated polymers donors and both fullerene and non-fullerene molecular acceptors was prepared and screened for sacrificial photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. These donor-acceptor nanohybrids (DANHs) showed significantly enhanced hydrogen evolution rates compared with the parent donor or acceptor compounds. DANHs of <a></a><a>a polycarbazole</a>-based donor combined with a methanofullerene acceptor (PCDTBT/PC<sub>60</sub>BM) showed a high hydrogen evolution rate of 105.2 mmol g<sup>-1</sup> h<sup>-1</sup> under visible light (λ > 420 nm). This DANH photocatalyst produced 5.9 times more hydrogen than a sulfone-containing polymer (P10) under the same conditions, which is one of the most efficient organic photocatalysts reported so far. An apparent quantum yield of hydrogen evolution of 3.0 % at 595 nm was measured for this DANH. The photocatalytic activity of the DANHs, which in optimized cases reached 179.0 mmol g<sup>-1</sup> h<sup>-1</sup>, is attributed to efficient charge transfer at the polymer donor/molecular acceptor interface. We also show that ternary donor<sub>A</sub>-donor<sub>B</sub>-acceptor nanohybrids can give higher activities than binary donor-acceptor hybrids in some cases.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ain Uddin ◽  
Kyle Plunkett

A series of donor-acceptor copolymers with dicyclopenta[cd,jk]pyrene and dicyclopenta[cd,lm]perylene acceptor units was prepared via palladium catalyzed cyclopenta-annulation reactions. The acceptor units were paired with diethynyl containing donor groups based on benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene, thieno[3,2-b]thiophene, and 4-octyl-4H-dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyrrole to create six polymer variants. The cyclopentannulation polymerization resulted in copolymers with molecular weights (Mn) of 6-14 kDa and broad light absorption in the visible region with band gaps of 1.38-1.85 eV. The synthetic methodology, as well as optoelectronic properties, including thin-film absorption and cyclic voltammetry, of the donor-acceptor copolymers are presented.<br> <br><br>


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