A Quantum Chemical Screening of Two Imidazole-Chalcone Hybrid Ligands and Their Pd, Pt and Zn Complexes for Charge Transport and Nonlinear Optical (NLO) Properties: A DFT Study

A quantum chemical screening of two imidazole-based chalcone ligands: 2- [1-(3-(1H-imidazol-1-yl)propylimino)-3-(phenylallyl)]phenol and 2-[1-(3-(1H- imidazol-1-yl)propylimino)-3-4-nitrophenylallyl]phenol (hereinafter referred to as HL1 and HL2 respectively) and their Pd, Pt and Zn chelates for charge transport and nonlinear optical (NLO) properties, is reported via dispersion- corrected density functional theory (DFT-D3) and time-dependent DFT (TD- DFT) methods. From our results, Pd and Pt complexes have been observed to show excellent hole-transport properties, owing to their very small reorganization energies. The light extraction efficiency of the HL1-Pt complex was deduced to be particularly impressive, thus suitable for the manufacture of hole transport layer in violet light emitting diodes (LEDs). Moreover, redox potentials and chemical stability studies have enabled us to validate the greater stability in moisture (towards oxidation), of HL2 complexes compared to their HL1 counterparts. The first and second hyperpolarizabilities of both ligands and their complexes have been found to be outstandingly higher than those of the push-pull prototypical, para-nitroaniline by factors of up to 12 in the case of HL2. These compounds, with the exception of the HL2-Pt complex, are thus interesting candidates having wide transparency tradeoffs for NLO efficiency in the manufacture of optoelectronic and photonic devices capable of second and third-order NLO response. Finally, metal chelation has been established to enhance the NLO response of all the chalcone-based imidazole ligands investigated as a result of metal-ligand charge transfer and ligand- metal charge transfer electronic transitions identified in the resulting complexes with the exception of the zinc complexes.

Theoretical Study on Electronic and Charge Transfer Properties of Oligo[8]thiophene and Its Circular,Hooped,and Helical Derivatives

The novel linear, circular, hooped, and helical molecules based on oligo[8]thio- phene were theoretically studied for the applications of charge transfer devices. To investigate the influence of topology for oligo[8]thiophene derivatives, the geometry structures, frontier molecular orbital （FMO） energies, charge transport properties, and stability property were predicted by density functional theory methods. The calculated results reported herein show that the oligo[8]thiophene derivative with linear structure has smaller energy gap, and fused oligo[8]thiophene derivative with circular structure has the smallest reorganization energy among the designed molecules. We have also studied the stability properties of the designed molecules, and oligo[8]thiophene derivatives are more stable tharJ the fused oligo[8]thiophene derivatives.

Simultaneous studies of pressure effect on charge transport and photophysical properties in organic semiconductors:A theoretical investigation

High-mobility and strong luminescent materials are essential as an important component of organic photodiodes,having received extensive attention in the field of organic optoelectronics.Beyond the conventional chemical synthesis of new molecules,pressure technology,as a flexible and efficient method,can tune the electronic and optical properties reversibly.However,the mechanism in organic materials has not been systematically revealed.Here,we theoretically predicted the pressure-depended luminescence and charge transport properties of high-performance organic optoelectronic semiconductors,2,6-diphenylanthracene(DPA),by first-principle and multi-scale theoretical calculation methods.The dispersion-corrected density functional theory(DFT-D)and hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics(QM/MM)method were used to get the electronic structures and vibration properties under pressure.Furthermore,the charge transport and luminescence properties were calculated with the quantum tunneling method and thermal vibration correlation function.We found that the pressure could significantly improve the charge transport performance of the DPA single crystal.When the applied pressure increased to 1.86 GPa,the hole mobility could be doubled.At the same time,due to the weak exciton coupling effect and the rigid flat structure,there is neither fluorescence quenching nor obvious emission enhancement phenomenon.The DPA single crystal possesses a slightly higher fluorescence quantum yield~0.47 under pressure.Our work systematically explored the pressure-dependence photoelectric properties and explained the inside mechanism.Also,we proposed that the exte rnal pressure would be an effective way to improve the photoelectric perfo rmance of organic semiconductors.

Cocrystal engineering:towards high-performance near-infrared organic phototransistors based on donor-acceptor charge transfer cocrystals

Near-infrared organic phototransistors have wide application prospects in many fields.The active materials with the high mobility and near-infrared response are critical to building high-performance near-infrared organic phototransistors,which are scarce at present.Herein,a new charge transfer cocrystal using 5,7-dihydroindolo[2,3-b]carbazole(5,7-ICZ)as the donor and 2,2’-(benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b’]dithiophene-4,8-diylidene)dimalononitrile(DTTCNQ)as the acceptor is properly designed and prepared in a stoichiometric ratio(D:A=1:1),which not only displays a high electron mobility of 0.15 cm^(2)V^(-1)s^(-1) and very low dark current,but also can serve as the active layer materials in the region of near-infrared detection due to the narrowed band gap and good charge transport properties.A high photosensitivity of 1.8×10^(4),the ultrahigh photoresponsivity of 2,923 A W-1and the high detectivity of 4.26×10^(11)Jones of the organic near-infrared phototransistors are obtained.

Rational Design of Star-shaped Molecules with Benzene Core and Naphthalimide Derivatives End Groups as Organic Light-emitting Materials

A series of star-shaped molecules with benzene core and naphthalimides derivatives end groups have been designed to explore their optical,electronic,and charge transport properties as charge transport and/or luminescent materials for organic light-emitting diodes（OLEDs）. The frontier molecular orbitals（FMOs） analysis has turned out that the vertical electronic transitions of absorption and emission are characterized as intramolecular charge transfer（ICT）. The calculated results show that the optical and electronic properties of star-shaped molecules are affected by the substituent groups in N-position of 1,8-naphthalimide ring. Our results suggest that star-shaped molecules with n-butyl（1）,benzene（2）,thiophene（3）,thiophene S？,S？-dioxide（4）,benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole（5）,and 2,7a-dihydrobenzo[d]thiazole（6） fragments are expected to be promising candidates for luminescent and electron transport materials for OLEDs. This study should be helpful in further theoretical investigations on such kind of systems and also to the experimental study for charge transport and/or luminescent materials for OLEDs.

Finely Tuned Electron/Hole Transport Preference of Thiazoloisoindigo-based Conjugated Polymers by Incorporation of Heavy Chalcogenophenes

A series of copolymers of thiazoloisoindigo (Tzll) with different chalcogenophene trimers were synthesized to systematicllyinvestigate the chalcogen effect on their charge transport propertes.When only the middlethiophene ring of terthiphene(T-T-T)is replaced byheavier chalcogenophenes,a preference(expressed by the ratio of μe/μh)towards electron transport was observed descending from T-T-Tto T-Se-Tthen to T-Te-T(Se and Te stand for selenophene and tellurophene,respectively).On the other hand,with the increased number of heavierchalcogenophenes,a preference toward hole transport was observed descending from Se-T-Se to Se-Se-se then to Se-Te-Se.This phenomenon iswellexplained by the balance between the aromatic resonance energy of the chalcogenophenes and the electronegativity of the chalcogens.Specifically,P(TZll-T-Se-T)displayed relatively balanced ambipolar property(μh^(max)andμe^(max) of 3.77 and 1.59 cm^(2)·v^(-1)·s^(-1)with aμe/μh of 0.42).while P(Tll-Se-Te-Se)exhibited the best preference to hole transfer with a u.u,of 0.09.P(Tzll-T-Te-T)exhibited the best preference to electrontransfer with aμe/μl,of 16 and theμe^(max)of 0.64 cm^(2)·v^(-).s^(-1)which is the highest electron mobility among the known conjugated polymerscontaining tellurophenes.