Photophysical Properties and Optoelectronic Device Applications of a Novel Naphthalene−Vinylene Type Conjugated Polymer

Synthesis and Properties of a Chiroptically Active Oligomer from 3,4-Ethylenedioxythiophene and (-)-Myrtenal

Oxidative polycondensation of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene and (–)-myrtenal was carried out with POCl₃. A π-conjugated system thus constructed consists of aromatic and quinoidal alternating structure linked via methine groups. We examined iodine doping effect for the resultant material with electron spin resonance spectroscopy. Circular dichroism spectra in chloroform solution showed blue-shift with increase of iodine concentration. This result indicates that the doping process can tune chiroptical activity of the chiral π-conjugated system.

A dendritic fullerene-porphyrin dyad

We describe the synthesis, characterization and photophysical properties of a fullerene derivative whose structure includes a Zn-porphyrin and a second generation liquid-crystalline (LC) dendrimer. The size of the fullerene and porphyrin units with respect to the size of the LC dendrimer prevents the formation of liquid-crystalline phases. However, this system gives interesting photoinduced electron transfer phenomena. Compound has been investigated by steady state and time resolved fluorescence as well as transient absorption spectroscopy in polar and apolar solvents. We demonstrate that the fluorescence of the porphyrin unit in is quenched compared to the Zn-tetraphenylporphyrin used as reference. Femto- and picosecond transient absorption permit to identify the formation of a radical ion pair while nanosecond experiments allowed the determination of the charge recombination lifetimes.

Soluble Narrow Band Gap and Blue Propylenedioxythiophene-Cyanovinylene Polymers as Multifunctional Materials for Photovoltaic and Electrochromic Applications

A family of soluble narrow band gap donor-acceptor conjugated polymers based on dioxythiophenes and cyanovinylenes is reported. The polymers were synthesized using Knoevenagel polycondensation or Yamamoto coupling polymerizations to yield polymers with molecular weights on the order of 10 000-20 000 g/mol, which possess solubility in common organic solvents. Thin film optical measurements revealed narrow band gaps of 1.5-1.8 eV, which gives the polymers a strong overlap of the solar spectrum. The energetic positions of the band edges were determined by cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry and demonstrate that the polymers are both air stable and show a strong propensity for photoinduced charge transfer to fullerene acceptors. Such measurements also suggest that the polymers can be both p- and n-type doped, which is supported by spectroelectrochemical results. These polymers have been investigated as electron donors in photovoltaic devices in combination with PCBM ([6,6]-phenyl C(61)-butyric acid methyl ester) as an electron acceptor based on the near ideal band structures designed into the polymers. Efficiencies as high as 0.2% (AM1.5) with short circuit current densities as high as 1.2-1.3 mA/cm(2) have been observed in polymer/PCBM (1:4 by weight) devices and external quantum efficiencies of more than 10% have been observed at wavelengths longer than 600 nm. The electrochromic properties of the narrow band gap polymers are also of interest as the polymers show three accessible color states changing from an absorptive blue or purple in the neutral state to a transmissive sky-blue or gray in the oxidized and reduced forms. The wide electrochemical range of electrochromic activity coupled with the strong observed changes in transmissivity between oxidation states makes these materials potentially interesting for application to electrochromic displays.

Bilayer vesicles as precursors for spherical fractal aggregates from the self-assembly of a C60-fullerene-dyad in polar solvent

Spherical fractal aggregates of approximately 10 microm were formed from a pi-electronic amphiphile, C(60)-didodecyloxybenzene dyad when extracted from THF into water, necessitating a critical dielectric constant epsilon > or =30 in binary THF-water mixtures. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed the unit cluster to such a form involves an aggregation number approximately 90 with predominant soft associative molecular interactions which corroborated the octadecahedral model proposed for the cluster growth.

Theoretical Study of the Remote Control of Hydrogen Bond Strengths in Donor-Bridge-Acceptor Systems: Principles for Designing Effective Bridges with Substituent Tuning

Remote control of hydrogen bond strengths has been studied based on conjugated donor-bridge-acceptor (pyrrole-bridge-imine) systems. The neutral and protonated states of the imine can change the hydrogen bonding ability of the pyrrole because, in the protonated state, significant partial intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) is induced that causes partial delocalization of the positive charge onto the pyrrole moiety. An efficient bridge, regardless of its length, should help electrons to flow out of pyrrole. A previously developed design strategy for the bridge (low bridge HOMO/LUMO) leads to the study of cyano- and fluoro-substituted conjugated systems. Substitution positions are found to be of key importance for maximizing the protonation-induced response from the donor-bridge-acceptor systems. Our results not only help to identify useful bridge substitution patterns, but also highlight interesting issues regarding the bridge conformation and the fluorine lone-pair effect.

Singlet−Triplet and Triplet−Triplet Interactions in Conjugated Polymer Single Molecules

Single molecule fluorescence correlation spectroscopy has been used to investigate the photodynamics of isolated single multichromophoric polymer chains of the conjugated polymers MEH-PPV and F8BT on the microsecond to millisecond time scale. The experimental results (and associated kinetic modeling) demonstrate that (i) triplet exciton pairs undergo efficient triplet-triplet annihilation on the <<30 micros time scale, (ii) triplet-triplet annihilation is the dominant mechanism for triplet decay at incident excitation powers > or =50 W/cm(2), and (iii) singlet excitons are quenched by triplet excitons with an efficiency on the order of (1)/(2). The high efficiency of this latter process ensures that single molecule fluorescence spectroscopy can be effectively used to indirectly monitor triplet exciton population dynamics in conjugated polymers. Finally, correlation spectroscopy of MEH-PPV molecules in a multilayer device environment reveals that triplet excitons are efficiently quenched by hole polarons.