Semiconducting π-extended porphyrin dimer and its characteristics in OFET and OPVC

• Published in: Synthetic metals 2015-07, Vol.205, p.206-211
• Main Authors: Park, Woo Jea, Chae, Seung Hyun, Shin, Jicheol, Choi, Dong Hoon, Lee, Suk Joong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Crystallinity; Derivatives; Devices; Dimers; Field-effect transistors; Palladium; Porphyrins; Semiconductors; Stacking; Thin films; Toluene; π–π interactions
• ISSN: 0379-6779; 1879-3290
• DOI: 10.1016/j.synthmet.2015.04.017

[Display omitted] •New class of π-extended porphyrin dimer has been successfully synthesized.•The OFET devices based on porphyrin dimer show excellent mobility.•Due to the solubility, the device fabricated from toluene and THF mixed solvents shows higher mobility.•Annealing is an essential process to increase the crystallinity of π-extended porphyrin dimer based thin-film. Porphyrin is considered as one of the best candidates for various organic electronic devices, due to its molecular planarity and π-conjugation. Particularly, for the good performing OFETs based on porphyrin derivatives, they should have high crystallinity and close π–π stacking distance in solid state. However, π-extended dimeric porphyrin has never been introduced as a charge transport layer in OFETs. In this regard, we report here on the design and synthesis of new solution processable semiconducting π-extended porphyrin dimer (PD-1), and its OFET and OPVC characteristics. Due to strong π–π interactions, PD-1 showed high crystallinity in film state which displayed an excellent electrical characteristics with high hole mobility of 0.026cm2/Vs and high current on–off ratio of >105, when the device was fabricated in the mixed solvents of toluene and THF. This mobility is 1000 times better than that of a device fabricated from a solution either THF or toluene exclusively. Furthermore, the photovoltaic performance of PD-1 device shows a PCE of 0.58%. The effective π-conjugation and molecular planarity of π-extended dimeric porphyrin (PD-1) can lead to significant changes in the electrical characteristics of the devices.