Ken Albrecht

Dendritic Structure Having a Potential Gradient: New Synthesis and Properties of Carbazole Dendrimers

A new synthetic route for carbazole dendrimers was discovered using the copper-catalyzed N-arylation reaction. This synthetic route allowed synthesizing the fourth generation carbazole dendrimer and several derivatives for the first time. The crystal structure, Mark-Houwink-Sakurada plots, and UV-vis and fluorescence studies showed that the dendritic carbazole backbone has a rigid and highly twisted structure. From the measurement of the redox potential of the ferrocene derivatives, the IR spectra of the benzophenone derivatives, and complexation behavior of the phenylazomethine derivatives, the inductive electron-withdrawing effect of the carbazole dendron was revealed. This suggested that the summation of this electron withdrawal from each layer may produce a potential gradient such that the outer layer is electron-rich and the inner layer is electron-poor in the carbazole dendron. By assignment of the (1)H and (13)C NMR spectra of the dendron, the existence of this kind of potential gradient was proved. Overall, these data show the pi-polarization substituent effect of the carbazole unit, and their summation determines the potential gradient in the repeating dendritic structure of the carbazole dendrimer.

Carbazole Dendrimers as Solution‐Processable Thermally Activated Delayed‐Fluorescence Materials

Recently, thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials have received increasing attention as effective emitters for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). However, most of them are usually employed as dopants in a host material. In this report, carbazole dendrimers with a triphenyl-s-triazine core are reported, which are the first solution-processable, non-doped, high-molecular-weight TADF materials. The dendrimers were obtained by a new and facile synthetic route using the tert-butyldimethylsilyl moiety as a protecting group. All dendrimers showed TADF in toluene. Measurements of the temperature-dependent luminescence lifetime revealed that spin-coated neat films also showed TADF with moderate quantum yields. OLED devices incorporating these dendrimers as spin-coated emitting layers gave external quantum efficiencies of up to a 3.4 %, which suggests that this device is harvesting triplet excitons. This result indicates that carbazole dendrimers with attached acceptors are potential TADF materials owing to their polarized electronic structure (with HOMO-LUMO separation).

Mulifunctional Dendritic Emitter: Aggregation-Induced Emission Enhanced, Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Material for Solution-Processed Multilayered Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials emerged as promising light sources in third generation organic light-emitting diodes (OLED). Much effort has been invested for the development of small molecular TADF materials and vacuum process-based efficient TADF-OLEDs. In contrast, a limited number of solution processable high-molecular weight TADF materials toward low cost, large area, and scalable manufacturing of solution processed TADF-OLEDs have been reported so far. In this context, we report benzophenone-core carbazole dendrimers (GnB, n = generation) showing TADF and aggregation-induced emission enhancement (AIEE) properties along with alcohol resistance enabling further solution-based lamination of organic materials. The dendritic structure was found to play an important role for both TADF and AIEE activities in the neat films. By using these multifunctional dendritic emitters as non-doped emissive layers, OLED devices with fully solution processed organic multilayers were successfully fabricated and achieved maximum external quantum efficiency of 5.7%.

A Polyaromatic Molecular Clip That Enables the Binding of Planar, Tubular, and Dendritic Compounds

By the covalent linkage of two bent bisanthracene amphiphiles with a biphenyl spacer bearing hydrophilic pendants, we synthesized a new molecular clip with a C-shaped conformation. The molecular clip provides an acyclic, open cavity surrounded by four anthracene panels in water. In contrast to previous clip- and tweezers-like compounds as well as cage-shaped compounds, the C-shaped polyaromatic cavity displays unusual wide-ranging capturing abilities toward not only planar perylene-based pigments and cylindrical single-walled carbon nanotubes but also highly branched macromolecules (carbazole dendrimers).

Polymerization of a divalent/tetravalent metal-storing atom-mimicking dendrimer

The phenylazomethine dendrimer exhibits “atom mimicry,” and its polymerization (and Lewis acid accumulation) is demonstrated. The phenylazomethine dendrimer (DPA) has a layer-by-layer electron density gradient that is an analog of the Bohr atom (atom mimicry). In combination with electron pair mimicry, the polymerization of this atom-mimicking dendrimer was achieved. The valency of the mimicked atom was controlled by changing the chemical structure of the dendrimer. By mimicking a divalent atom, a one-dimensional (1D) polymer was obtained, and by using a planar tetravalent atom mimic, a 2D polymer was obtained. These poly(dendrimer) polymers could store Lewis acids (SnCl2) in their unoccupied orbitals, thus indicating that these poly(dendrimer) polymers consist of a series of nanocontainers.

A dendrimer emitter doped in a dendrimer host: efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence OLEDs with fully-solution processed organic-layers

A thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) carbazole dendrimer (tBuG2TAZ) doped in a carbazole dendrimer host (G3Ph, G4Ph) was employed as an emissive layer (EML) in an OLED device with fully solution processed organic layers. Green (λMAX = 502 nm) emission with a maximum external efficiency (EQEMAX) of 16.1% was achieved when tBuG2TAZ was doped in G3Ph. This value was higher than the previously reported OLED device with a neat film of tBuG2TAZ as an EML because of the higher PLQY due to suppressed concentration quenching. The TADF-active carbazole dendrimer doped in a carbazole host film shows excellent miscibility and solvent resistance to ethanol. On the other hand, when a small molecule (rubrene) was doped in the carbazole dendrimer, significant dissolution of rubrene was observed after rinsing the doped film with ethanol. This shows the importance of the solvent resistivity of a dopant emitter when another film is solution-processed onto the doped film. The “doping dendrimer in dendrimer” concept is a new concept to allow fabrication of fully solution-processed TADF OLEDs.

Synthesis and Properties of Nitrogen-Introduced Phenylazomethine Dendrimer

Abstract The pyridine ring–introduced phenylazomethine dendrimer (PyDPA) was synthesized by a dehydration reaction using titanium(IV) chloride. The ultraviolet–visible absorption and the electrochemical study showed that the introduction of the pyridine ring produces a smaller band gap by increasing the highest occupied molecular orbital level and decreasing the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital level. A crystal of a PyDPA-PdCl2 complex was also prepared. Traditional phenylazomethine dendrimers cannot form a complex with palladium, indicating that PyDPA can potentially coordinate with various metal salts such as Co, Ni, Ru, and Mn and can be used for catalytic or electronic applications. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Single-molecule rectifiers based on voltage-dependent deformation of molecular orbitals in carbazole oligomers

Current-voltage characteristics of single molecule junctions are governed both by the energy level alignment of molecular orbitals with respect to the Fermi level of the electrodes and by the hybridization of electronic structures at the interface between the molecule and the electrodes. While there have been many studies on tuning the former, only a few works intended to control the latter. In the present study, we demonstrate that molecular junctions based on carbazole oligomers showed a current rectification behavior due to asymmetric-symmetric control of electronic hybridization between the molecule and electrodes at the both terminals. The carbazole oligomers originally showed an asymmetric molecular orbital and, hence, electronic hybridization with the electrodes because of the electric dipole moment. Symmetric electronic hybridization was achieved when the applied electric field between electrodes deformed molecular orbital to be symmetric. This is a novel way to control charge transport in single-molecule junctions.

Highly Efficient Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Organic Light-Emitting Diodes with Fully Solution-Processed Organic Multilayered Architecture: Impact of Terminal Substitution on Carbazole–Benzophenone Dendrimer and Interfacial Engineering

A series of second-generation carbazole-benzophenone dendrimer substituted by several functional groups at terminal positions (subG2B) was investigated toward a thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitter for nondoped emissive layer (EML) application in a solution-processed organic light-emitting diode (OLED). Substitution was found to dramatically alter the photophysical properties of the dendritic TADF emitters. The introduction of tert-butyl and phenyl group endows the subG2Bs with aggregation-induced emission enhancement character by suppression of internal conversion in singlet excited states. In the meantime, the introduction of a methoxy group resulted in aggregation-caused quenching character. The device performance of the OLED, where subG2B neat films were incorporated as nondoped EMLs, was found to be highly enhanced by adopting fully solution-processed organic multilayer architecture in comparison to the devices with a vacuum-deposited electron transporting layer (ETL), achieving a maximum external quantum efficiency of 17.0%. Such improvement was attributable to the improved carrier balance via intermixing at solution-processed EML/ETL interfaces. It was also found that the post-thermal annealing of the OLED at appropriate temperatures could be beneficial to enhance OLED performance by promoting the intermixing EML/ETL interface to some extent. Our findings emphasize the potential utility of dendritic TADF emitters in the solution-processed TADF-OLED and increase the importance to manipulate dendrimer/small molecule interfaces.

Fabrication of sub-1 nm gap electrodes using metal-mask patterning and conductivity measurements of molecules in nanoscale spaces

We developed a procedure for fabricating sub-1 nm gap Au electrodes using a metal mask for electrode patterning. Self-aligned nanogap formation was achieved using an electromigration method during metal deposition. We also measured the electric conductivities of organic molecules using the new nanogap electrodes. Because the new procedure does not involve wet processing, the ranges of possible electrode and substrate materials for the nanogap electrodes are greatly expanded. Finally, we discussed the molecular orbital energies of bridging and nonbridging 1,4-benzenedithiol molecules between Au electrodes. The new procedure for the fabrication of nanogap electrodes is expected to be useful for measuring the electrical properties of various nanoscale materials.