Synthesis and high-throughput characterization of structural analogues of molecular glassformers: 1,3,5-trisarylbenzenes

The role of intramolecular relaxations on the structure and stability of vapor-deposited glasses

Stable glasses (SGs) are formed through surface-mediated equilibration (SME) during physical vapor deposition (PVD). Unlike intermolecular interactions, the role of intramolecular degrees of freedom in this process remains unexplored. Here, using experiments and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate that varying dihedral rotation barriers of even a single bond, in otherwise isomeric molecules, can strongly influence the structure and stability of PVD glasses. These effects arise from variations in the degree of surface mobility, mobility gradients, and mobility anisotropy, at a given deposition temperature ( T dep). At high T dep, flexible molecules have access to more configurations, which enhances the rate of SME, forming isotropic SGs. At low T dep, stability is achieved by out of equilibrium aging of the surface layer. Here, the poor packing of rigid molecules enhances the rate of surface-mediated aging, producing stable glasses with layered structures in a broad range of T dep. In contrast, the dynamics of flexible molecules couple more efficiently to the glass layers underneath, resulting in reduced mobility and weaker mobility gradients, producing unstable glasses. Independent of stability, the flattened shape of flexible molecules can also promote in-plane orientational order at low T dep. These results indicate that small changes in intramolecular relaxation barriers can be used as an approach to independently tune the structure and mobility profiles of the surface layer and, thus, the stability and structure of PVD glasses.

Role of Molecular Layering in the Enhanced Mechanical Properties of Stable Glasses

The density, degree of molecular orientation, and molecular layering of vapor-deposited stable glasses (SGs) vary with substrate temperature (T_dep) below the glass-transition temperature (T_g). Density and orientation have been suggested to be factors influencing the mechanical properties of SGs. We perform nanoindentation on two molecules which differ by only a single substituent, allowing one molecule to adopt an in-plane orientation at low T_dep. The reduced elastic modulus and hardness of both molecules show similar T_dep dependences, with enhancements of 15-20% in reduced modulus and 30-45% in hardness at T_dep ≈ 0.8T_g, where the density of vapor-deposited films is enhanced by ∼1.4% compared to that of the liquid-quenched glass. At T_dep < 0.8T_g, one of the molecules produces highly unstable glasses with in-plane orientation. However, both systems show enhanced mechanics. Both the modulus and hardness correlate with the degree of layering, which is similar in both systems despite their variable stability. We suggest that nanoindentation performed normal to the film's surface is influenced by the tighter packing of the molecules in this direction.

Design of a homologous series of molecular glassformers

We design and synthesize a set of homologous organic molecules by taking advantage of facile and tailorable Suzuki cross coupling reactions to produce triarylbenzene derivatives. By adjusting the number and the arrangement of conjugated rings, the identity of heteroatoms, lengths of fluorinated alkyl chains, and other interaction parameters, we create a library of glassformers with a wide range of properties. Measurements of the glass transition temperature (T_g) show a power-law relationship between T_g and molecular weight (M_W), with of the molecules, with an exponent of 0.3 ± 0.1, for T_g values spanning a range of 300-450 K. The trends in indices of refraction and expansion coefficients indicate a general increase in the glass density with M_W, consistent with the trends observed in T_g variations. A notable exception to these trends was observed with the addition of alkyl and fluorinated alkyl groups, which significantly reduced T_g and increased the dynamical fragility (which is otherwise insensitive to M_W). This is an indication of reduced density and increased packing frustrations in these systems, which is also corroborated by the observations of the decreasing index of refraction with increasing length of these groups. These data were used to launch a new database for glassforming materials, glass.apps.sas.upenn.edu.

Merging Iridium-Catalyzed C-H Borylations with Palladium-Catalyzed Cross-Couplings Using Triorganoindium Reagents

A versatile and efficient method to prepare borylated arenes furnished with alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl, and heteroaryl functional groups is developed by merging Ir-catalyzed C-H borylations (CHB) with a chemoselective palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of triorganoindium reagents (Sarandeses-Sestelo coupling) with aryl halides bearing a boronic ester substituent. Using triorganoindium cross-coupling reactions to introduce unsaturated moieties enables the synthesis of borylated arenes that would be difficult to access through the direct application of the CHB methodology. The sequential double catalyzed procedure can be also performed in one vessel.

Organic Glasses of High Glass Transition Temperatures Due To Substitution with Nitrile Groups

The glass transition temperature (T_g) of a molecular glass depends on its molar mass. However, the nature of intermolecular interactions also plays a major role in both the glass transition temperature and its glass-forming ability. In this context, we report on novel molecular glasses containing nitrile groups and investigate the influence of this highly polar group on T_g and the glass-forming ability. As reference compounds, we studied the thermal properties of synthesized molecular glasses with C-C-bonded phenyl rings. The molar mass of the studied compounds ranges from 341 to 568 g/mol. Despite their relatively low molar mass, glass transition temperatures from 347 K (74 °C) to 471 K (198 °C) were observed. Most of the compounds possess high T_g/T_mratios between 0.7 and 0.8. By introducing highly interacting nitrile groups, the dependence of the molar mass on T_g could be increased by a factor of 2-3.

Exploring the Importance of Surface Diffusion in Stability of Vapor-Deposited Organic Glasses

Stable glasses are formed during physical vapor deposition (PVD), through the surface-mediated equilibration process. Understanding surface relaxation dynamics is important in understanding the details of this process. Direct measurements of the surface relaxation times in molecular glass systems are challenging. As such, surface diffusion measurements have been used in the past as a proxy for the surface relaxation process. In this study, we show that the absence of enhanced surface diffusion is not a reliable predictor of reduced ability to produce stable glasses. To demonstrate, we have prepared stable glasses (SGs) from two structurally similar organic molecules, 1,3-bis(1-naphthyl)-5-(2-naphthyl)benzene (TNB) and 9-(3,5-di(naphthalen-1-yl)phenyl)anthracene (α,α-A), with similar density increase and improved kinetic stability as compared to their liquid-quenched (LQ) counterparts. The surface diffusion values of these glasses were measured both in the LQ and SG states below their glass transition temperatures ( T_gs) using gold nanorod probes. While TNB shows enhanced surface diffusion in both SG and LQ states, no significant surface T_g diffusion is observed on the surface of α,α-A within our experimental time scales. However, isothermal dewetting experiments on ultrathin films of both molecules below T_g indicate the existence of enhanced dynamics in ultrathin films for both molecules, indirectly showing the existence of an enhanced mobile surface layer. Both films produce stable glasses, which is another indication for the existence of the mobile surface layer. Our results suggest that lateral surface diffusion may not be a good proxy for enhanced surface relaxation dynamics required to produce stable glasses, and thus, other types of measurements to directly probe the surface relaxation times may be necessary.

Effect of substrate interactions on the glass transition and length-scale of correlated dynamics in ultra-thin molecular glass films

Interfacial interactions can play an important role in the glass transition temperature (T _g ) and relaxation dynamics of ultra-thin glass polymer films. We have recently shown that similar to the polymeric systems in ultra-thin molecular glass films of N, N'-Bis(3-methylphenyl)-N, N'-diphenylbenzidine (TPD), the T _g is reduced and dynamics are enhanced. Furthermore, in molecular glass systems, as the film thickness is reduced below ∼30 nm, the dynamics at the two interfaces correlate such that the range of the gradients in the dynamics induced by the free surface narrows compared to thicker films. These observations indicate that the dynamics of the glassy thin films are strongly correlated and cannot be explained by a simple two-layer model consisting of a bulk and a thin interfacial layer with a constant thickness and constant range of dynamical gradients. Here, we investigate the effect of film/substrate interactions on the film dynamics by varying the TPD/substrate interfacial interactions. We show that thin TPD films with thicknesses below ∼60 nm show a smaller extent of T _g reduction and enhanced dynamics when supported on a near-neutral substrate (wetting) compared to a weakly interacting (dewetting) substrate. However, the ∼30 nm length scale, where the activation energy significantly reduces from its bulk value as measured by the onset of the glass transition remains unchanged. Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation also shows a narrowing in the range of relaxation times once the thickness is sufficiently reduced for the two interfaces to dynamically correlate, consistent with previous work. These results suggest that the length-scale for the correlated dynamics is independent of interfacial interactions and the polymeric nature of the film and may originate from the bulk glass properties.

Structure-property relationships from universal signatures of plasticity in disordered solids

When deformed beyond their elastic limits, crystalline solids flow plastically via particle rearrangements localized around structural defects. Disordered solids also flow, but without obvious structural defects. We link structure to plasticity in disordered solids via a microscopic structural quantity, "softness," designed by machine learning to be maximally predictive of rearrangements. Experimental results and computations enabled us to measure the spatial correlations and strain response of softness, as well as two measures of plasticity: the size of rearrangements and the yield strain. All four quantities maintained remarkable commonality in their values for disordered packings of objects ranging from atoms to grains, spanning seven orders of magnitude in diameter and 13 orders of magnitude in elastic modulus. These commonalities link the spatial correlations and strain response of softness to rearrangement size and yield strain, respectively.

Birefringent Stable Glass with Predominantly Isotropic Molecular Orientation

Birefringence in stable glasses produced by physical vapor deposition often implies molecular alignment similar to liquid crystals. As such, it remains unclear whether these glasses share the same energy landscape as liquid-quenched glasses that have been aged for millions of years. Here, we produce stable glasses of 9-(3,5-di(naphthalen-1-yl)phenyl)anthracene molecules that retain three-dimensional shapes and do not preferentially align in a specific direction. Using a combination of angle- and polarization-dependent photoluminescence and ellipsometry experiments, we show that these stable glasses possess a predominantly isotropic molecular orientation while being optically birefringent. The intrinsic birefringence strongly correlates with increased density, showing that molecular ordering is not required to produce stable glasses or optical birefringence, and provides important insights into the process of stable glass formation via surface-mediated equilibration. To our knowledge, such novel amorphous packing has never been reported in the past.

The effect of chemical structure on the stability of physical vapor deposited glasses of 1,3,5-triarylbenzene

We detail the formation and properties associated with stable glasses (SG) formed by a series of structural analogues of 1,3-bis(1-naphthyl)-5-(2-naphthyl)benzene (α,α,β-TNB), a well-studied SG former. Five compounds with similar structural properties were synthesized and physical vapor-deposited with a constant deposition rate at various substrate temperatures (Tdep) in the range between 0.73 Tg and 0.96 Tg. These molecules include α,α,β-TNB, 3,5-di(naphthalen-1-yl)-1-phenylbenzene (α,α-P), 9-(3,5-di(naphthalen-1-yl)phenyl)anthracene (α,α-A), 9,9'-(5-(naphthalen-2-yl)-1,3-phenylene)dianthracene (β-AA), and 3,3',5,5'-tetra(naphthalen-1-yl)-1,1'-biphenyl (α,α,α,α-TNBP). Ellipsometry was used to study the transformations from the as-deposited glasses into ordinary glasses (OG). The stability of each film was evaluated by measuring the fictive temperature (Tf) and density difference between the as-deposited glass and OG. It is demonstrated that all five molecules can form SGs upon vapor deposition in this temperature range. In-depth studies on the dependence of the stability of as-deposited glasses upon Tdep were performed with three molecules, α,α,β-TNB, α,α-P, and α,α-A. The general trends of stability were comparable at the same Tdep/Tg for these three compounds. Similar to previous studies on α,α,β-TNB, vapor-deposited glasses of α,α-P and α,α-A formed the most stable structures around Tdep = 0.8-0.85 Tg. The most stable glass of each molecule showed the lowest thermal expansion coefficient compared to OG and a positive optical birefringence. However, the SGs of α,α-A were less stable compared to α,α-P and α,α,β-TNB at the relative Tdep/Tg. Based on Arrhenius extrapolation of the aging time, as a measure of stability, the most stable α,α-A glass was only aged for a few years as opposed to hundreds or thousands of years for other glasses. We hypothesize that the reduced stability is due to slower mobility at the free surface of α,α-A glass compared to the other two molecules.

Unraveling the interplay between hydrogen bonding and rotational energy barrier to fine-tune the properties of triazine molecular glasses

Mexylaminotriazine derivatives form molecular glasses with outstanding glass-forming ability (GFA), glass kinetic stability (GS), and tunable glass transition temperature. This work establishes key molecular parameters for efficient glass engineering.