Molecular Design of Air-Stable n-type Fluorocarbon Semiconductors

Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO

Investigators

Abstract

In this project funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamic & Mechanism B Program of the Chemistry Division, Professor Steven Strauss and Dr. Olga Boltalina of the Department of Chemistry at Colorado State University will design a series of new robust, air stable fluorocarbon acceptor materials from earth-abundant elements. These new light-weight fluoroorganic acceptors will possess incrementally tunable electronic properties desirable for n-type organic semiconductors and sufficiently broad range of solid state packing motifs to allow for molecular engineering of high-performance and air-stable materials for optoelectronics. Their potential applications include but are not limited to various organic electronic architectures (organic photovoltaic devices, organic light-emitting diodes, Organic thin-film transistors, and various types of chemical sensors). An important goal of this project will be the advancement of scientific education by broadly training graduate students to become the next generation of problem-solving scientists. By participating in this project they will become chemical jacks-of-all-trades, learning the difficult art of chemical synthesis and then mastering, through hands-on experimentation, an armamentarium of physical techniques, including those in collaborators laboratories around the world. These materials are based on hydrocarbyl and heteroatom-containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with multiple electron-withdrawing groups, primarily, but not exclusively, fluorocarbon groups. In contrast to common synthetic approaches involving multiple steps and metal catalysts, the team will use a solvent-, catalyst-, or promoter-free gas-phase syntheses that will efficiently yield most thermodynamically stable products. Fundamental understanding of the interrelationships between single molecule properties and bulk material and composites functions will be gained through a systematic approach based on studies of the carefully selected families of high-purity novel electroactive fluorocarbon compounds by the following physicochemical techniques: gas-phase electron affinity measurements by low-temperature photoemission spectroscopy; cyclic voltammetry; ESR- and UV-Vis-NIR-spectroelectro-chemistry; time resolved microwave conductivity of thin films and blends with donor materials; and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements of thin films and blends.