Simulated pressure response of crystalline indole

Blue emitting organic semiconductors under high pressure: status and outlook

This review describes essential optical and emerging structural experiments that use high GPa range hydrostatic pressure to probe physical phenomena in blue-emitting organic semiconductors including π-conjugated polyfluorene and related compounds. The work emphasizes molecular structure and intermolecular self-organization that typically determine transport and optical emission in π-conjugated oligomers and polymers. In this context, hydrostatic pressure through diamond anvil cells has proven to be an elegant tool to control structure and interactions without chemical intervention. This has been highlighted by high pressure optical spectroscopy whilst analogous x-ray diffraction experiments remain less frequent. By focusing on a class of blue-emitting π-conjugated polymers, polyfluorenes, this article reviews optical spectroscopic studies under hydrostatic pressure, addressing the impact of molecular and intermolecular interactions on optical excitations, electron-phonon interaction, and changes in backbone conformations. This picture is connected to the optical high pressure studies of other π-conjugated systems and emerging x-ray scattering experiments from polyfluorenes which provides a structure-property map of pressure-driven intra- and interchain interactions. Key obstacles to obtain further advances are identified and experimental methods to resolve them are suggested.

Understanding the structure and electronic properties of molecular crystals under pressure: application of dispersion corrected DFT to oligoacenes

Oligoacenes form a fundamental class of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) which have been extensively explored for use as organic (semi) conductors in the bulk phase and thin films. For this reason it is important to understand their electronic properties in the condensed phase. In this investigation, we use density functional theory with Tkatchenko-Scheffler dispersion correction to explore several crystalline oligoacenes (naphthalene, anthracene, tetracene, and pentacene) under pressures up to 25 GPa in an effort to uncover unique electronic/optical properties. Excellent agreement with experiment is achieved for the pressure dependence of the crystal structure unit cell parameters, densities, and intermolecular close contacts. The pressure dependence of the band gaps is investigated as well as the pressure induced phase transition of tetracene using both generalized gradient approximated and hybrid functionals. It is concluded that none of the oligoacenes investigated become conducting under elevated pressures, assuming that the molecular identity of the system is maintained.

Compression studies of face-to-face π-stacking interaction in sodium squarate salts: Na2C4O4 and Na2C4O4●3H2O

High-pressure Raman scattering and synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements of sodium squarate (Na(2)C(4)O(4), SS) are performed in a diamond anvil cell. SS possesses a rare, but typical structure, which can show the effect of face-to-face π-stacking without interference of other interactions. At ~11 GPa, it undergoes a phase transition, identified as a symmetry transformation from P2(1)/c to P2(1). From high-pressure Raman patterns and the calculated model of SS, it can be proved that the phase transition results from the distorted squarate rings. We infer it is the enhancement of π-stacking that dominates the distortion. For comparison, high-pressure Raman spectra of sodium squarate trihydrate (Na(2)C(4)O(4)●3H(2)O, SST) are also investigated. The structure of SST is determined by both face-to-face π-stacking and hydrogen bonding. SST can be regarded as a deformation of SS. A phase transition, with the similar mechanism as SS, is observed at ~10.3 GPa. Our results can be well supported by the previous high-pressure studies of ammonium squarate ((NH(4))(2)C(4)O(4), AS), and vice versa. High-pressure behaviors of the noncovalent interactions in SS, SST, and AS are compared to show the impacts of hydrogen bonding and the role of electrostatic interaction in releasing process.