Establishing Self-Dopant Design Principles from Structure-Function Relationships in Self-n-Doped Perylene Diimide Organic Semiconductors.

Self-doping is a particular doping method that has been applied to a wide range of organic semiconductors. However, there is a lack of understanding regarding the relationship between dopant structure and function. A structurally diverse series of self-n-doped perylene diimides (PDIs) is investigated to study the impact of steric encumbrance, counterion selection, and dopant/PDI tether distance on functional parameters such as doping, stability, morphology, and charge-carrier mobility. The studies show that self-n-doping is best enabled by the use of sterically encumbered ammoniums with short tethers and Lewis basic counterions. Additionally, water is found to inhibit doping, which concludes that thermal degradation is merely a phenomenological feature of certain dopants, and that residual solvent evaporation is the primary driver of thermally activated doping. In situ grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering studies show that sample annealing increases the π-π stacking distance and shrinks grain boundaries for improved long-range ordering. These features are then correlated to contactless carrier-mobility measurements with time-resolved microwave conductivity before and after thermal annealing. The collective relationships between structural features and functionality are finally used to establish explicit self-n-dopant design principles for the future design of materials with improved functionality.

Photoactivation Properties of Self-n-Doped Perylene Diimides: Concentration-dependent Radical Anion and Dianion Formation.

Perylene diimides (PDIs) have garnered attention as organic photocatalysts in recent years for their ability to drive challenging synthetic transformations, such as aryl halide reduction and olefin iodoperfluoroalkylation. Previous work in this area employs spectator pendant groups attached to the imide nitrogen positions of PDIs that are only added to impart solubility. In this work, we employ electron-rich ammonium iodide or ammonium hydroxide pendant groups capable of self-n-doping the PDI core to form radical anions (R •- ) and dianions (D ••2- ). We observe R •- formation is favored at low concentrations where aliphatic linkers are able to freely rotate, while D ••2- formation is favored at elevated concentrations likely due to Coulombic stabilization between adjacent chromophores in a similar manner to that of Kasha exciton stabilization. Cyclic voltammetric measurements are consistent with steric encumbrance increasing the Lewis basicity of anions through Coulombic destabilization. However, sterics also inhibit dianion formation by disrupting aggregation. Finally, femtosecond transient absorption measurements reveal that low wavelength excitation (400 nm) preferentially favors the excitation of R •- to the strongly reducing doublet excited state 2[R •- ]*. In contrast, higher wavelength excitation (520 nm) favors the formation of the singlet excited state 1[N]*. These findings highlight the importance of dopant architecture, counterion selection, excitation wavelength, and concentration on R •- and D ••2- formation, which has substantial implications for future photocatalytic applications. We anticipate these findings will enable more efficient systems based on self-n-doped PDIs.

Complementary, Cooperative Ditopic Halogen Bonding and Electron Donor-Acceptor π-π Complexation in the Formation of Cocrystals.

This study expands and combines concepts from two of our earlier studies. One study reported the complementary halogen bonding and π-π charge transfer complexation observed between isomeric electron rich 4-N,N-dimethylaminophenylethynylpyridines and the electron poor halogen bond donor, 1-(3,5-dinitrophenylethynyl)-2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-4-iodobenzene while the second study elaborated the ditopic halogen bonding of activated pyrimidines. Leveraging our understanding on the combination of these non-covalent interactions, we describe cocrystallization featuring ditopic halogen bonding and π-stacking. Specifically, red cocrystals are formed between the ditopic electron poor halogen bond donor 1-(3,5-dinitrophenylethynyl)-2,4,6-triflouro-3,5-diiodobenzene and each of electron rich pyrimidines 2- and 5-(4-N,N-dimethyl-aminophenylethynyl)pyrimidine. The X-ray single crystal structures of these cocrystals are described in terms of halogen bonding and electron donor-acceptor π-complexation. Computations confirm that the donor-acceptor π-stacking interactions are consistently stronger than the halogen bonding interactions and that there is cooperativity between π-stacking and halogen bonding in the crystals.

Ditopic halogen bonding with bipyrimidines and activated pyrimidines.

The potential of pyrimidines to serve as ditopic halogen-bond acceptors is explored. The halogen-bonded cocrystals formed from solutions of either 5,5'-bipyrimidine (C8H6N4) or 1,2-bis(pyrimidin-5-yl)ethyne (C10H6N4) and 2 molar equivalents of 1,3-diiodotetrafluorobenzene (C6F4I2) have a 1:1 composition. Each pyrimidine moiety acts as a single halogen-bond acceptor and the bipyrimidines act as ditopic halogen-bond acceptors. In contrast, the activated pyrimidines 2- and 5-{[4-(dimethylamino)phenyl]ethynyl}pyrimidine (C14H13N3) are ditopic halogen-bond acceptors, and 1:1 halogen-bonded cocrystals are formed from 1:1 mixtures of each of the activated pyrimidines and either 1,2- or 1,3-diiodotetrafluorobenzene. A 1:1 cocrystal was also formed between 2-{[4-(dimethylamino)phenyl]ethynyl}pyrimidine and 1,4-diiodotetrafluorobenzene, while a 2:1 cocrystal was formed between 5-{[4-(dimethylamino)phenyl]ethynyl}pyrimidine and 1,4-diiodotetrafluorobenzene.

C-I...N and C-I...π halogen bonding in the structures of 1-benzyliodoimidazole derivatives.

Halogen bonding is a well-established and intensively studied intermolecular interaction that has also been used in the preparation of functional materials. While polyfluoroiodo- and polyfluorobromobenzenes have been widely used as aromatic halogen-bond donors, there have been very few studies of iodoimidazoles with regard to halogen bonding. We describe here the X-ray structures of three iodoimidazole derivatives, namely 1-benzyl-2-iodo-1H-imidazole, C10H9IN2, (1), 1-benzyl-4-iodo-1H-imidazole, C10H9IN2, (2), and 1-benzyl-2-iodo-1H-benzimidazole, C14H11IN2, (3), and the halogen bonds that dominate the intermolecular interactions in each of these three structures. The three-dimensional structure of (1) is dominated by a strong C-I...N halogen bond, with an N...I distance of 2.8765 (2) Å, that connects the molecules into one-dimensional zigzag ribbons of molecules. In contrast, the three-dimensional structures of (2) and (3) both feature C-I...π halogen-bonded dimers.