Johnston AR, Pitch GM, Minckler ED, Mora IG, Balasco Serrão VH, Dailing EA, Ayzner AL. Excitonically Coupled Simple Coacervates via Liquid/Liquid Phase Separation.
J Phys Chem Lett 2022;
13:10275-10281. [PMID:
36305559 PMCID:
PMC9661528 DOI:
10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c02466]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2022] [Accepted: 10/17/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Viscoelastic liquid coacervate phases that are highly enriched in nonconjugated polyelectrolytes are currently the subject of highly active research from biological and soft-materials perspectives. However, formation of a liquid, electronically active coacervate has proved highly elusive, since extended π-electron interactions strongly favor the solid state. Herein we show that a conjugated polyelectrolyte can be rationally designed to undergo aqueous liquid/liquid phase separation to form a liquid coacervate phase. This result is significant both because it adds to the fundamental understanding of liquid/liquid phase separation but also because it opens intriguing applications in light harvesting and beyond. We find that the semiconducting coacervate is intrinsically excitonically coupled, allowing for long-range exciton diffusion in a strongly correlated, fluctuating environment. The emergent excitonic states are comprised of both excimers and H-aggregates.
Collapse