A low molecular weight OLED material: 2-(4-((2-hydroxyethyl)(methyl)amino)benzylidene)malononitrile. Synthesis, crystal structure, thin film morphology, spectroscopic characterization and DFT calculations.

2-(4-((2-Hydroxyethyl)(methyl)amino)benzylidene)malononitrile (HEMABM) was synthesized from 4-[hydroxymethyl(methyl)amino]benzaldehyde and propanedinitrile to obtain a low molecular weight fluorescent material with an efficient solid-state emission and electroluminescence properties comparable to the well-known poly(2-methoxy-5(2'-ethyl)hexoxyphenylenevinylene) (MEH-PPV). The HEMABM was used to prepare an organic light-emitting diode by a solution process. Despite the title compound being a small molecule, it showed optical properties and notable capacity to form a film with smooth morphology (10.81 nm) closer to that of polymer MEH-PPV (10.63 nm). The preparation of the device was by spin coating, the electrical properties such as threshold voltage were about 1.0 V for both HEMABM and MEH-PPV, and the luminance 1300 cd m-2 for HEMABM and 2600 cd m-2 for MEH-PPV. This low molecular weight compound was characterized by SCXRD, IR, NMR, and EI. Besides a quantitative analysis of the intermolecular interactions by PIXEL, density functional theory (DFT) calculations are reported.

Efficient OLEDs Fabricated by Solution Process Based on Carbazole and Thienopyrrolediones Derivatives.

Four low molecular weight compounds-three of them new, two of them with carbazole (Cz) as functional group and the other two with thienopyrroledione (TPD) group-were used as emitting materials in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Devices were fabricated with the configuration ITO/PEDOT:PSS/emitting material/LiF/Al. The hole injector layer (HIL) and the emitting sheet were deposited by spin coating; LiF and Al were thermally evaporated. OLEDs based on carbazole derivatives show luminances up to 4130 cd/m², large current efficiencies about 20 cd/A and, cautiously, a very impressive External Quantum Efficiency (EQE) up to 9.5%, with electroluminescence peaks located around 490 nm (greenish blue region). Whereas, devices manufactured with TPD derivatives, present luminance up to 1729 cd/m², current efficiencies about 4.5 cd/A and EQE of 1.5%. These results are very competitive regarding previous reported materials/devices.

Semi-Automatic Elemental Identification of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectra Using Wavelength Similarity Coefficient.

This work proposes a method to perform elemental identification on plasmas produced using the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique. The method is based on the preservation of the relative relevance of the spectral line emission intensities, which is lost during the parametric correlation procedure, by the introduction of a similitude coefficient called wavelength similarity coefficient. Furthermore, it was shown that for identification purposes, a simplified plasma model is sufficient to predict adequately the relative emission intensities in LIBS plasmas. As a result, it is possible to automatically identify the species with high emission signals, while trace detection is also possible by relaxing search conditions, although manual refinement is still required.

Semiconductor Polymer/Top Electrode Interface Generated by Two Deposition Methods and Its Influence on Organic Solar Cell Performance.

In this Research Article, the effect of two techniques for top-electrode deposition in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) cells with the configuration ITO/PEDOT:PSS/PTB7-Th:PC71BM/PFN/top-electrode is analyzed. One deposition was made by evaporation under high vacuum, meanwhile the other was carried out at normal room atmosphere; for the former, a double layer of Ca and the eutectic alloy Field's metal (FM) was thermally evaporated, while for the latter FM was deposited just by melting and dropping it on top of the delimited active area at temperatures about 90 °C. The average short-circuit photocurrent density, open circuit voltage and fill factor for devices with either Ca/FM (evaporated) or FM (by dripping) cathode, were very similar: around 13.20 mA/cm2, 840 mV, and 0.6, respectively. Average efficiency for devices with the mentioned evaporated cathode was of 6.4% (largest value 7.0%), meanwhile for devices with the cathode deposited by dripping, it was of 6.1% (largest value 6.5%). Morphological analysis, by atomic force microscopy on the surface of a FM electrode, detached from an OPV device, shows inhomogeneities and pinholes in its surface with an average roughness of 16 nm. OPV photocurrent was studied by means of laser beam induced current (LBIC), it showed that OPVs devices with FM top electrode exhibits an inhomogeneous response. An impedance analysis was also carried out and results were correlated with defects observed at the studied interface. In spite of the mentioned deficiencies at FM interface, overall PV performance of devices with this electrode highlights the convenience of using FM because of its easy, fast, and low-cost deposition (vacuum free) characteristics.

Two-photon excited fluorescence of silica nanoparticles loaded with a fluorene-based monomer and its cross-conjugated polymer: their application to cell imaging.

In this work the two-photon activity of nanoparticles obtained from a fluorene monomer (M1) and its cross-conjugated polymer (P1) is reported. Aqueous suspensions of M1 and P1 nanoparticles prepared through the reprecipitation method exhibited maximum two-photon absorption (TPA) cross-sections of 84 and 9860 GM (1 GM = 10(-50) cm(4) s) at 740 nm, respectively, and a fluorescence quantum yield of ~1. Such a two-photon activity was practically equal with respect to that for molecular solutions of M1 and P1. These materials were then successfully encapsulated into silica nanoparticles to provide bio-compatibly. A lung cancer cell line (A549) and a human cervical cancer cell line (HeLa cells) were incubated with our fluorescent silica nanoparticles to carry out two-photon imaging. By means of these studies we demonstrate that optimized nonlinear optical polymers loaded in silica nanoparticles can be used as efficient probes with low cytotoxicity and good photostability for two-photon fluorescence microscopy. To the best of our knowledge, studies concerning polymer-doped silica nanoparticles exhibiting large two-photon activity have not been reported in the literature.

Fast and environmentally friendly quantitative analysis of active agents in anti-diabetic tablets by an alternative laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) method and comparison to a validated reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is evaluated as a potential analytic technique for rapid screening and quality control of anti-diabetic tablets. This paper proposes a simple LIBS-based method for the quantitative analysis of two active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs): metformin (Met) and glybenclamide (Gly). In order to quantify both APIs, chlorine (Cl) concentration was estimated by employing the Cl/Br optical emission ratio, where Br was introduced as internal standard. Calibration curves were prepared, achieving linearity higher than 99%. On the other hand, for comparison to the proposed method, an isocratic reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method was also developed for quantitative determination of the same analytes by ultraviolet (UV) detection. The chromatographic separation was achieved on a Phenomenex Hypersil C18, 250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 µm column. The mobile phase was K(2)HPO(4)/H(3)PO(4)-CH(3)OH and flow rate was 1.0 mL min(-1). The method is linear over a range of 10-60 µg mL(-1) for Gly and 5-30 µg mL(-1) for Met and the correlation coefficients were ≥0.99. Recoveries were found to be in the range of 95-101%. Furthermore, four different commercial brands of each active agent were evaluated by both proposed LIBS and chromatographic methods and results were compared with each other. The comparison was satisfactorily validated by analysis of variance (ANOVA).