Optical and electronic structure description of metal-doped phthalocyanines

Iodine Doping Implementation Effect on the Electrical Response in Metallophthalocyanines (M = Cu, Co, Zn), for Electronic and Photovoltaic Applications

We report the structural organization and its effect on the current response of the conducting domains in MPcs (M = Cu, Co, Zn) films, deposited by vacuum thermal evaporation and doped by the presence of iodine vapors. Structural and surface features of the doped metallophthalocyanines (MPcs) were studied by using IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). DFT calculations were carried to study the interaction between iodine and MPcs molecules and establish the influence of iodine on the electronic behavior of these species and the changes on the frontier molecular orbitals. This interaction is thermodynamically favored, and the mechanism of electronic transit involving the iodine atoms providing electrons to the transfer. The I-MPc films have a mainly amorphous structure, some crystallinity in the MPcs α and β forms. A roughness between 18.41 and 99.02 nm and particle size between 1.35 and 15 μm. By evaluating the electrical behavior of the flexible PET/ITO/I-MPc/Ag devices, it was found that J-V curves under illuminated conditions show an increase of curves values upon the I-MPc, indicating that the flexible films are photosensible. Jsc between 1.59 × 10−5 and 2.41 × 10−7 A/cm2, conductivities between 6.17 × 10−8–2.54 × 10−7 Scm−1 and photosensibility values of up to 133%.

A theoretical study on electronic spectra of a novel series of metal substituted boron subphthalocyanine chloride

Boron subphthalocyanine chloride has been extensively studied by experimentalists and computational chemists due to its unique optical and electronic properties. It has been practical to modify the optical and physical properties of subphthalocyanine through axial, peripheral, and center substitutions or ring expansion. However, there have been few investigations on the substitution of central boron atom. In the present work, a new metal-substituted (center substitution of boron atom) series of boron subphthalocyanine chloride (metal = Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn) are theoretically designed utilizing modern density functional theory. The optimized results of this series in gas phase and with polarizable continuum model show that they may be chemically stable, and the predicted order of the stability of MSubPC is Fe>Cu>Ni>Co>Zn. Also, this new series of MSubPC molecules all becomes more non-planar and has much smaller dipole moments, which imply that they may be feasible for blend with organic acceptors. The HOMO-LUMO energy gaps of MSubPC (M=Co, Ni, Cu) are smaller than that of subPC. Furthermore, the wavelength of simulated absorption peaks of ZnSubPC and NiSubPC is red-shifted with respect to prototype subPC molecule in the visible region, and FeSubPC has noticeably stronger absorption strength than subPC because its excitation involves more orbital transitions and d electrons. The work here shows a new way to design photoelectric materials based on subphthalocyanine with center metal substitution.