Effect of molecular packing on modulation of electronic properties of organic donor–acceptor hybrid gels

Pousali Chal, Arnab Shit, Davide Levy, Sujoy Das, Sanjoy Mondal, Arun K. Nandi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Here we report gelation properties and molecular packing of phenyl alanine conjugated perylenebisimide (PPA, P) in dimethyl formamide (DMF) and tetrahydrofuran (THF). In both solvents, PPA self-assembles to crystalline nanofibers and exhibits solvent dependent packing polymorphism of PPA molecule. The gels reveal almost comparable optoelectronic behavior in solutions, but xerogels prepared from P3TAA-PPA hybrid(PP), (a donor-acceptor system) in THF exhibits four times higher conductivity than that in DMF and 12 times higher conductivity in former than the later on illumination with light of 1 sun. Spectroscopy, microscopy, X-ray scattering and electrical measurements suggest that the robust crystalline packing of PPA in THF compare to DMF results in better percolation of charges. Due to different packing arrangement, PP-THF hybrid xerogel exhibits negative differential resistance whereas PP-DMF xerogel acts as electronic memory.The impedance results indicate lower charge transfer resistance and higher capacitance in P-THF than in P-DMF xerogel for the difference of molecular packing and this is also greatly reflected in hybrid xerogels. This study proves that although different packing of PBI may have small effect in optical properties and conductivity of pristine assemblies, but such packing differences are critical in determining the efficiency of charge transport when incorporated into donor-acceptor composites.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)480-492
Number of pages13
JournalColloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects
Volume577
DOIs
StatePublished - 20 Sep 2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge SERB (Grant No. EMR/2016/005302 ), New Delhi, India for financial support. P. C., S. D., and S. M. acknowledge CSIR for providing the fellowship. We also acknowledge Prof. D. Chattopadhyay of University of Calcutta for extending us the SEM facility.

FundersFunder number
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India
Science and Engineering Research BoardEMR/2016/005302

    Keywords

    • Conductivity
    • Gelation kinetics
    • Nyquist plot
    • Optoelectronic properties
    • Perylenebisimide
    • Phenyl alanine

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