Design Rules for Transparent Push-Pull Electron Acceptors: A Case Study on Perylenediimide Derivatives

Amino-Functionalized Perylenediimide Derivative with Dual Fluorescence Emission for the Detection of Ascorbic Acid in Vivo and Vitro

The rapid, sensitive, and selective detection of ascorbic acid (AA) is of significance in medical assays and diagnostics. In this work, a new amino perylenediimide derived (APDI) ratiometric fluorescent probe based on the specific redox reaction of cobalt oxyhydroxide (CoOOH) and AA was constructed. APDI exhibited dual fluorescence emission peaks at 549 and 596 nm with an excitation wavelength of 494 nm. In the presence of CoOOH, the dual fluorescence could be quenched. The dominant fluorescence quenching mechanism was caused by the inner filter effect. Using the red emission as a reference, the fluorescence intensity ratio (F₅₄₉ /F₅₉₆ ) was linearly correlated with the concentration of AA over a range of 0.05 to 1 μM. The limit of detection for AA was found to be 17 nM. Importantly, the probe was successfully used to detect AA in living cells. Therefore, this high sensitivity and selectivity strategy could directly survey the AA levels in real samples.

Exciton Modulation in Perylene-Based Molecular Crystals Upon Formation of a Metal-Organic Interface From Many-Body Perturbation Theory

Excited-state processes at organic-inorganic interfaces consisting of molecular crystals are essential in energy conversion applications. While advances in experimental methods allow direct observation and detection of exciton transfer across such junctions, a detailed understanding of the underlying excitonic properties due to crystal packing and interface structure is still largely lacking. In this work, we use many-body perturbation theory to study structure-property relations of excitons in molecular crystals upon adsorption on a gold surface. We explore the case of the experimentally-studied octyl perylene diimide (C8-PDI) as a prototypical system, and use the GW and Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) approach to quantify the change in quasiparticle and exciton properties due to intermolecular and substrate screening. Our findings provide a close inspection of both local and environmental structural effects dominating the excitation energies and the exciton binding and nature, as well as their modulation upon the metal-organic interface composition.

Theoretical insights on tunable optoelectronics and charge mobilities in cyano-perylenediimides: interplays between -CN numbers and positions

Air-stable perylenediimide (PDI) and its derivatives, in particular the cyano-functionalized ones, have attracted great research attention for their potential use in flexible optoelectronics, organic field-effect-transistors (OFETs) as n-type transport materials and also as non-fullerene acceptors in organic photovoltaics (OPVs). Herein we provide a detailed theoretical study on the optical, electrochemical and charge-transport properties (electron and hole mobilities) in a few CN-substituted PDIs with varied number of -CN at different positions (both symmetric and asymmetric di- and tetra-CN derivatives) using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT implementing optimally tuned screened range-separated hybrid (OT-SRSH) combining with kinetic rate theory. All cyano-PDIs studied here are energetically stable and form stable π-stacked structures similar to the pristine one, and also act as better electron acceptors. No significant changes in the PDI optical properties are found with the different ways of CN-functionalization, but, this strongly affects the π-stacked geometry, and thereby the electronic coupling, which greatly modulates the PDI intrinsic carrier mobility. Calculated room-temperature electron mobility for the pristine PDI is in excellent agreement with the reported OFET value (∼0.1 cm2 V-1 s-1). Interestingly, relatively large electronic couplings together with small reorganization energies of the symmetrically substituted tetra-CN PDI result in very large charge mobilities (0.4 cm2 V-1 s-1 for electrons and 5.6 cm2 V-1 s-1 for holes) among the systems studied. Therefore, this may serve as a potential ambipolar transport material and hence, naturally calls for experimental demonstration. This detailed and comprehensive study sheds light on the complex interplays between the -CN numbers and the positions for tailored optoelectronic and charge-transport in several functional PDIs, and also shows routes to molecularly design potential n-type materials.