Rubrene Thin Films with Viably Enhanced Charge Transport Fabricated by Cryo-Matrix-Assisted Laser Evaporation

Among organic semiconductors, rubrene (RB; C42H28) is of rapidly growing interest for the development of organic and hybrid electronics due to exceptionally long spin diffusion length and carrier mobility up to 20 cm2V−1s−1 in single crystals. However, the fabrication of RB thin films resembling properties of the bulk remains challenging, mainly because of the RB molecule’s twisted conformation. This hinders the formation of orthorhombic crystals with strong π–π interactions that support the band transport. In this work, RB films with a high crystalline content were fabricated by matrix-assisted laser evaporation and the associated structure, composition, and transport properties are investigated. Enhanced charge transport is ascribed to the crystalline content of the film. Spherulitic structures are observed on top of an amorphous RB layer formed in the initial deposition stage. In spherulites, orthorhombic crystals dominate, as confirmed by X-ray diffraction and the absorption and Raman spectra. Surprisingly, nanowires several microns in length are also detected. The desorption/ionization mass and X-ray photoelectron spectra consistently show minimal material decomposition and absence of RB peroxides. The observed carrier mobility up to 0.13 cm2V−1s−1, is close to the technologically accepted level, making these rubrene films attractive for spintronic and optoelectronic applications.

Estimates for the elastic moduli of 2D hexagonal-shape orthorhombic crystals with in-plane random crystalline orientations

Numerical finite element simulations on the homogenization problem for large random-aggregate samples of a particular 2D hexagonal-shape-geometry random polycrystals from the base crystals of orthorhombic symmetry have been performed. At sufficiently large random-aggregate samples, the scatter intervals converge toward the Voigt-Reuss-Hill bounds, and then our recently constructed bounds, which have been specified for the aggregates.

Azide inhibition of urate oxidase

The inhibition of urate oxidase (UOX) by azide was investigated by X-ray diffraction techniques and compared with cyanide inhibition. Two well characterized sites for reagents are present in the enzyme: the dioxygen site and the substrate-binding site. To examine the selectivity of these sites towards azide inhibition, several crystallization conditions were developed. UOX was co-crystallized with azide (N3) in the presence or absence of either uric acid (UA, the natural substrate) or 8-azaxanthine (8AZA, a competitive inhibitor). In a second set of experiments, previously grown orthorhombic crystals of the UOX–UA or UOX–8AZA complexes were soaked in sodium azide solutions. In a third set of experiments, orthorhombic crystals of UOX with the exchangeable ligand 8-nitroxanthine (8NXN) were soaked in a solution containing uric acid and azide simultaneously (competitive soaking). In all assays, the soaking periods were either short (a few hours) or long (one or two months). These different experimental conditions showed that one or other of the sites, or the two sites together, could be inhibited. This also demonstrated that azide not only competes with dioxygen as cyanide does but also competes with the substrate for its enzymatic site. A model in agreement with experimental data would be an azide in equilibrium between two sites, kinetically in favour of the dioxygen site and thermodynamically in favour of the substrate-binding site.