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Controlling Visible Light-Driven Photoconductivity in Self-Assembled Perylene Bisimide Structures

Zwijnenburg, MA; Walsh, James, J; Lee, Jonathan, R; Draper, Emily, R; King, Stephen, M; Jäckel, Frank; Martijn, A; ... Cowan, Alexander, J; + view all (2016) Controlling Visible Light-Driven Photoconductivity in Self-Assembled Perylene Bisimide Structures. Journal of Physical Chemistry C , 120 (33) pp. 18479-18486. 10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b06222. Green open access

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Abstract

Alanine-functionalized perylene bisimides (PBI-A) are promising photoconductive materials. PBI-A self-assembles at high concentrations (mM) into highly ordered wormlike structures that are suitable for charge transport. However, we previously reported that the photoconductive properties of dried films of PBI-A did not correlate with the electronic absorption spectra as activity was only observed under UV light. Using transient absorption spectroscopy, we now demonstrate that charge separation can occur within these PBI-A structures in water under visible light. The lack of charge separation in the films is shown by DFT calculations to be due to a large ion-pair energy in the dried samples which is due to both the low dielectric environment and the change in the site of hole-localization upon drying. However, visible light photoconductivity can be induced in dried PBI-A films through the addition of methanol vapor, a suitable electron donor. The extension of PBI-A film activity into the visible region demonstrates that this class of self-assembled PBI-A structures may be of use in a heterojunction system when coupled to a suitable electron donor.

Type: Article
Title: Controlling Visible Light-Driven Photoconductivity in Self-Assembled Perylene Bisimide Structures
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b06222
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b06222
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2016 American Chemical Society. ACS AuthorChoice - This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Chemistry
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1508156
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