Polymorphism Dependent 9-Phosphoanthracene Derivative Exhibiting Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence: A Computational Investigation

Thiocarbonyl-Bridged N-Heterotriangulenes for Energy Efficient Triplet Photosensitization: A Theoretical Perspective

Structurally-rigid metal-free organic molecules are of high demand for various triplet harvesting applications. However, inefficient intersystem crossing (ISC) due to large singlet-triplet gap (Δ E S - T ${\Delta {E}_{S-T}}$ ) and small spin-orbit coupling (SOC) between lowest excited singlet and triplet often limits their efficiency. Excited electronic states, fluorescence and ISC rates in several thiocarbonyl-bridged N-heterotriangulene ( m ${m}$ S-HTG) with systematically increased thione content (m = ${m=}$ 0-3) are investigated implementing polarization consistent time-dependent optimally-tuned range-separated hybrid. All m ${m}$ S-HTGs are dynamically stable and also thermodynamically feasible to synthesize. Relative energies of several low-lying singlets (S n ${{S}_{n}}$ ) and triplets (T n ${{T}_{n}}$ ), and their excitation nature (i. e.,n π * ${n{\pi }^{^{\ast}}}$ orπ π * ${\pi {\pi }^{^{\ast}}}$ ) and SOC are determined for these m ${m}$ S-HTGs in dichloromethane. Low-energy optical peak displays gradual red-shift with increasing thione content due to relatively smaller electronic gap resulted from greater degree of orbital delocalization. Significantly large SOC due to different orbital-symmetry and heavy-atom effect produces remarkably high ISC rates (k I S C ${{k}_{ISC}}$ ~1012 s-1) for enthalpically favouredS 1 n π * → T 2 ${{S}_{1}\left(n{\pi }^{^{\ast}}\right)\to {T}_{2}}$ (π π * ${\pi {\pi }^{^{\ast}}}$ ) channel in these m ${m}$ S-HTGs, which outcompete radiative fluorescence rates (~108 s-1) even directly from higher lying optically brightπ π * ${\pi {\pi }^{^{\ast}}}$ singlets. Importantly, high energy triplet excitons of ~1.7 eV resulting from such significantly large ISC rates from non-fluorescentS 1 n π * ${{S}_{1}\left(n{\pi }^{^{\ast}}\right)}$ make these thiocarbonylated HTGs ideal candidates for energy efficient triplet harvest including triplet-photosensitization.

First-principles design of heavy-atom-free singlet oxygen photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy

In photodynamic therapy (PDT) treatment, heavy-atom-free photosensitizers (PSs) are a great source of singlet oxygen photosensitizer. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced by an energy transfer from the lowest energy triplet excited state to the molecular oxygen of cancer cells. To clarify the photophysical characteristics in the excited states of a few experimentally identified thionated (>C=S) molecules and their oxygenated congeners (>C=O), a quantum chemical study is conducted. This study illustrates the properties of the excited states in oxygen congeners that render them unsuitable for PDT treatment. Concurrently, a hierarchy is presented based on the utility of the lowest-energy triplet excitons of thionated compounds. Their non-radiative decay rates are calculated for reverse-ISC and inter-system crossover (ISC) processes. In addition, the vibronic importance of C=O and C=S bonds is clarified by the computation of the Huang-Rhys factor, effective vibrational mode, and reorganization energy inside the Marcus-Levich-Jörtner system. ROS generation in thionated PSs exceeds their oxygen congeners as kf ≪ kISC, where radiative decay rate is designated as kf. As a result, the current work offers a calculated strategy for analyzing the effectiveness of thionated photosensitizers in PDT.

Nature and energetics of low-lying excited singlets/triplets and intersystem crossing rates in selone analogs of perylenediimide: A theoretical perspective

The structural rigidity and chemical diversity of the highly fluorescent perylenediimide (PDI) provide wide opportunities for developing triplet photosensitizers with sufficiently increased energy efficiency. Remarkably high intersystem crossing (ISC) rates with a complete fluorescence turn-off reported recently for several thione analogs of PDI due to substantially large spin-orbit coupling garners huge attention to develop other potential analogs. Here, several selone analogs of PDI, denoted as mSe-PDIs (m = 1-4) with varied Se content and positions, are investigated to provide a comprehensive and comparative picture down the group-16 using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT implementing optimally tuned range-separated hybrid in toluene dielectric. All mSe-PDIs are confirmed to be dynamically stable and also thermodynamically feasible to synthesize from their oxygen and thione congeners. The first excited-state singlet (S1) of mSe-PDI with relatively low Se-content (m = 1, 2) is of nπ* character with an expected fluorescence turn-off. Whereas, the ππ* nature of the S1 for 3Se-PDI and 4Se-PDI suggests a possible fluorescence turn-on in the absence of any other active nonradiative deactivation pathways. However, ∼4-6 orders greater ISC rates (∼1012-1014 s-1) than the fluorescence ones (∼108 s-1) for all mSe-PDIs signify highly efficient triplet harvest. Importantly, significantly higher ISC rates for these mSe-PDIs than their thione congeners render them efficient triplet photosensitizers.

Does the Intersystem Crossing Rate of β-Iodinated Phosphorus Corrole Depend on Iodine Numbers and/or Positions?

The heavy-atom effect is known to enhance the intersystem crossing (ISC) in organic molecular systems. Effects of iodine numbers and positions on the ISC rate of a few meso-difluorophenyl substituted β-iodinated phosphorus corroles (PCs) with axially ligated fluorine atoms (mI-FPC; m = 1-4) are studied using a time-dependent optimally tuned range-separated hybrid. Solvent effects are accounted for through a polarizable continuum model with a toluene dielectric. Calculations suggest similar thermodynamic stability for all mI-FPCs and also reproduce the experimentally measured 0-0 energies for some of the freebase phosphorus corrole (FPC) systems studied here. Importantly, our results reveal that all mI-FPCs display 10 times larger ISC rate (∼109 s-1) than the fluorescence rate (∼108 s-1), and the higher ISC rate stems from the improved spin-orbit coupling (SOC) introduced by lighter heteroatoms like central P and biaxial F rather than the I heavy-atom effect. However, an enhanced SOC is found with increasing I content for El-Sayed forbidden ISC channels. Research findings reported in this study unveil the impact of light heteroatoms and heavy atoms in promoting ISC in several iodinated PCs, which help in designing visible-light-driven efficient triplet photosensitizers.

Molecular-Scale Design of Azulene-Based Triplet Photosensitizers: Insights from Time-Dependent Optimally Tuned Range-Separated Hybrid

Metal-free triplet photosensitizers are ubiquitous in photocatalysis, photodynamic therapy, photovoltaics, and so forth. Their photosensitization efficiency strongly depends on the ability of the low-lying excited spin-triplet to be populated through intersystem crossing. Small singlet-triplet gaps and considerable spin-orbit coupling between the excited spin-singlet and spin-triplet facilitate efficient intersystem crossing. Azulene (Az), a classic example of Anti-Kasha's blue emitter with considerable fluorescence quantum yield, holds great promise because of its chemical stability, rich electronic properties, and high structural rigidity. Here, we provide computationally modeled Az-derived photosensitizers, namely, Az-CHO and Az-CHS, implementing polarization consistent time-dependent optimally tuned range-separated hybrid. Calculations reveal energetic reordering of low-lying ππ* and nπ* singlet states between Az-CHO and Az-CHS and, thereby, rendering the latter to a nonfluorescent one. Importantly, a small singlet-triplet gap and large spin-orbit coupling for Az-CHX with X = O and S produce remarkably high intersystem crossing rates. Furthermore, strong nonadiabatic coupling between the S1(nπ*) and S2(ππ*) in Az-CHS due to substantially smaller energy gap causes enhanced S1 population via fast internal conversion. These research findings provide new insights into the development of functional Az and or related heavy-atom-free small organic molecule-based triplet photosensitizers.

Exploring Thioxanthone Derivatives as Singlet Oxygen Photosensitizers for Photodynamic Therapy at the Near-IR Region

In the lowest excited triplet state, the excited photosensitizer reacts with tissue oxygen and forms reactive oxygen species (ROS), which kills tissue cells in photodynamic therapy (PDT). Metal-free thio-based pure organic molecules and analogous nucleobases can be used as photosensitizers for PDT applications. Using quantum chemical methods, we studied one- and two-photon optical absorptions, fluorescence, and other excited-state properties of substituted thioxanthone derivatives for their potential as photosensitizers for PDT. Our calculated values were compared with the available experimental data. The calculation of the intersystem crossing rate constant for these photosensitizers explains the high quantum yield of the formation of ROS, as reported experimentally. The excited triplet-state population of the photosensitizer occurs through the 1π-π* → 3n-π* channel of intersystem crossing and increases in the presence of halogen substitution.

Theoretical Insights into the Optical and Excited State Properties of Donor-Phenyl Bridge-Acceptor Containing Through-Space Charge Transfer Molecules

A comparative new strategy to enhance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) of through-space charge transfer (CT) molecules in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) is investigated. Generally, TADF molecules adopt a twisted donor and acceptor structure to get a sufficiently small ΔE_ST and a higher value of the spin-orbit coupling matrix element (SOCME). However, molecules containing donor-phenyl bridge-acceptor (D-p-A) units and featuring π-stacked architectures have intramolecular CT contribution through space and exhibit high TADF efficiency. We have explored the insights into the TADF mechanism in D-p-A molecules using the density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT methods. The calculated optical absorption and ΔE_ST values are found to be in good agreement with available experimental data. Interestingly, we found the origin of the SOCME to be the twisted orientation of the donor and bridge moieties. Also, we predicted similar molecules with enhanced OLED efficiency with different substitutions.

Controllable construction of red thermally activated delayed fluorescence molecules based on a spiro-acridine donor

Red and near-infrared (NIR) thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) molecules show excellent potential applications in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Due to the lack of systematic studies on the relationship between molecular structures and luminescence properties, both the species and amounts of red and NIR TADF molecules are far from meeting the requirements for practical applications. Herein, four new efficient molecules (DQCN-2spAs, TPCN-2spAs, DPCN-2spAs and BPCN-2spAs) are proposed and their photophysical properties are theoretically predicted based on first-principles calculations and thermal vibration correlation function (TVCF) theory. The results show that all molecules exhibit red or NIR emissions and they have fast radiative decay rates and reverse intersystem crossing (RISC) rates, and the excellent TADF luminescence properties are predicted. Moreover, based on spiro-acridine (spAs) as the donor unit, the combination with different acceptors can change the dihedral angle between the ground state and the excited state, the bending degree of the donor is positively correlated with the reorganization energy, and this feature can have a great influence on the non-radiative process. Furthermore, based on these theoretical predictions, experimental verifications are performed and the synthesized BPCN-2spAs is confirmed to be an efficient NIR TADF molecule. Thus, the relationships between basic molecular structures and photophysical properties are revealed, a feasible design strategy is applied and four promising red and NIR TADF molecules are proposed. All these results could contribute to the development of red and NIR TADF emitters and OLEDs.

Tailoring intersystem crossing of perylenediimide through chalcogen-substitution at bay-position: A theoretical perspective

Molecular-scale design strategies for promoting intersystem crossing (ISC) in small organic molecules are ubiquitous in developing efficient metal-free triplet photosensitizers with high triplet quantum yield (Φ_T). Air-stable and highly fluorescent perylenediimide (PDI) in its pristine form displays very small ISC compared to the fluorescence due to the large singlet-triplet gap (ΔE_S-T) and negligibly small spin-orbit coupling (SOC) between the lowest singlet (S₁) and triplet state (T₁). However, its Φ_T can be tuned by different chemical and mechanical means that are capable of either directly lowering the ΔE_S-T and increasing SOC or introducing intermediate low-lying triplet states (T_n, n = 2, 3, …) between S₁ and T₁. To this end, herein, a few chalcogen (X = O, S, Se) bay-substituted PDIs (PDI-X₂) are computationally modeled aiming at introducing geometrical-strain at the PDI core and also mixing nπ* orbital character to ππ* in the lowest singlet and triplet excited states, which altogether may reduce ΔE_S-T and also improve the SOC. Our quantum-chemical calculations based on optimally tuned range-separated hybrid reveal the presence of intermediate triplet states (T_n, n = 2, 3) in between S₁ and T₁ for all three PDI-X₂ studied in dichloromethane. More importantly, PDI-X₂ shows a significantly improved ISC rate than the pristine PDI due to the combined effects stemming from the smaller ΔE_S-T and the larger SOC. The calculated ISC rates follow the order as PDI-O₂ < PDI-S₂ < PDI-Se₂. These research findings will be helpful in designing PDI based triplet photosensitizers for biomedical, sensing, and photonic applications.

Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence of a Pyromellitic Diimide Derivative in the Film Environment Investigated by Combined QM/MM and MS-CASPT2 Methods

Arylene diimide compounds exhibit thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF), but its mechanism remains elusive. Herein we studied the TADF mechanism of a carbazole-substituted pyromellitic diimide derivative (CzPhPmDI) in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) film by using DFT, TD-DFT, and MS-CASPT2 methods within the QM/MM framework. We found that the TADF mechanism involves three electronic states (i.e., S₀, S₁, and T₁), but the T₂ state is not involved because its energy is higher than the S₁ state by 6.9 kcal/mol. By contrast, the T₁ state is only 3.2 kcal/mol lower than the S₁ state and such small energy difference benefits the reverse intersystem crossing (rISC) process from T₁ to S₁ thereto TADF. This point is seconded by relevant radiative and nonradiative rates calculated. At room temperature, the ISC rate from S₁ to T₁ is calculated to be 6.1 × 10⁶ s^-1, which is larger than the fluorescence emission rate, 2.2 × 10⁵ s^-1; thus, the dominant S₁ population converts to the T₁ state. However, in the T₁ state, the rISC process (1.8 × 10⁴ s^-1) becomes the most important channel because of the negligible phosphorescence emission rate (3.5 × 10^-2 s^-1). So, the T₁ population is still converted back to the S₁ state to fluoresce enabling TADF. Unfortunately, the rISC process is blocked in low temperature. Besides, we found that relevant Huang-Rhys factors have dominant contribution from low-frequency vibrational motion related to the torsional motion of functional groups. These gained insights could provide useful information for the design of organic TADF materials with excellent luminescence efficiency.

Theoretical Perspective for the Relationship Between Structures and Luminescent Properties of Red Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Molecules

Orange and red thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters have shown promising applications in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and bio-medical field. However, both the species and amounts of orange...

Harnessing Noncovalent Interactions for a Directed Evolution of a Six-Component Molecular Crystal

Building up on weak orthogonal interactions in supramolecular chemistry, a six-component crystal is designed. Using five distinctly different noncovalent forces, namely, hydrogen bonding, halogen bonding, cation-π, anion-π, and ion-pair interactions, three six-component crystals were designed with crown-ether (I), thiourea (II), 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-1,4-dibromobenzene (III), lone-pair donating anion (IV), ammonium cation (V), and electron-rich aromatic ring (VI). The M06-2X functional which is highly suitable in describing other weak interactions fails for ion-pairs. Tuned range-separated (RS)-DFT calculations are found to be capable in describing the ionic interactions in molecular solids. Molecular dynamics simulations show that the predicted multicomponent crystals are stable at room temperature and reducing the ionic charges for the ion-pairs destabilizes them. The strong electrostatic interactions between the three ion-pairs, NH₄⁺···ClO₄^-, NH₄⁺···HSO₄^-, and NH₄⁺···HCO₃^- is the primary driving force for the stabilization of the six-component crystal. Using a hybrid of strong and weak intermolecular interactions, one may generate exotic molecular complexity like n-component crystals.

Intersystem Crossing in Boron-Based Donor-Spiro-Acceptor Organic Chromophore: A Detailed Theoretical Study

Intersystem crossing and reverse intersystem crossing (rISC) processes were investigated in a boron-based donor-spiro-acceptor organic chromophore which shows thermally activated delayed fluorescence. Due to the perpendicular arrangement between donor and acceptor moieties, the HOMO and the LUMO are spatially separated, and the compound shows charge transfer (CT) transitions. We found both S₁ and T₁ excited states are CT in nature (i.e., electron and hole wave functions are localized on acceptor and donor units, respectively) and T₂, which is higher in energy than S₁ and T₁, is locally excited in nature (i.e., both electron and hole wave functions are localized on an acceptor unit). Because of the same nature of excitation (i.e., CT here), the spin-orbit coupling matrix element between S₁ and T₁ is very low and insignificant exciton conversion occurs from the T₁ state to the S₁ state (and vice versa). Our combined time-dependent density functional theory and quantum dynamics simulation shows that the rISC process from the T₁ state to the S₁ state can be enhanced by the presence of a nearby local excited triplet state (i.e., T₂ state here). A smaller gap between the T₁ and T₂ states efficiently establishes the rISC route.