Shuang Chen

Orientation-controlled charge transfer at CuPc/F16CuPc interfaces

Molecular orientation-controlled charge transfer has been observed at the organic-organic heterojunction interfaces of copper-hexadecafluoro-phthalocyanine (F16CuPc) or copper(II) phthalocyanine (CuPc) on both standing-up and lying-down CuPc or F16CuPc thin films. In situ synchrotron-based photoemission spectroscopy reveals that the charge transfer at the standing F16CuPc/CuPc or CuPc/F16CuPc interface is much larger than that at the lying F16CuPc/CuPc or CuPc/F16CuPc interface. This can be explained by the orientation-dependent ionization potentials of well-ordered organic thin films, which place the highest-occupied molecular orbital of the standing CuPc film much closer to the lowest-unoccupied molecular orbital of the standing F16CuPc film, facilitating stronger charge transfer as compared to that at the lying OOH interfaces. Our results suggest the possibility of manipulating interfacial electronic structures of organic heterojunctions by controlling the molecular orientation, in particular for appli...

Charge transport in stacking metal and metal-free phthalocyanine iodides. Effects of packing, dopants, external electric field, central metals, core modification, and substitutions.

The charge‐transport properties of the one‐dimensional stacking metal phthalocyanine iodides (M(Pc)I, M = Fe, Co, Ni, Cu) and metal‐free phthalocyanine iodide (H2(Pc)I) have been theoretically investigated. On the basis of the tight‐binding approximation and two‐state theory, both the site‐energy corrected energy splitting in dimer and Fock‐matrix‐based methods are used to calculate the transfer integral. The intermolecular motions, including interplanar translation, rotation, slip, and tilt, exert remarkable impacts on the transfer integral. The order/disorder of the dopant stack and the long‐range electrostatic interactions are also demonstrated to be crucial factors for modulation of charge‐transport properties. The transfer integral undergoes slight changes under an applied electric field along the stacking direction in the range of 106 − 107 V cm−1. The change of central metals in MPc has little effect on the transfer integrals, but significantly affects the reorganization energies. The extension of the π‐conjugation in macrocyclic ligand brings about considerable influence on the transfer integrals. Peripheral substitutions by animo, hydroxyl, and methyl lead to deviations from planarity of macromolecular rings, and hence affect the valence bands significantly.

The influence of orientations and external electric field on charge carrier mobilities in CuPc and F16CuPc films on highly ordered pyrolytic graphite and octane-1-thiol terminated Au(111) substrates

The lying-down and standing-up CuPc and F(16)CuPc films on HOPG (highly ordered pyrolytic graphite) and C8-SAM/Au(111) (octane-1-thiol terminated Au(111)) substrates are investigated by using a hybrid strategy combing the molecular dynamic (MD) simulations with density functional theory (DFT) calculations, in order to understand the influence of packing orientation on charge carrier mobilities. On the basis of the periodic slab model and consistent-valence force field, MD simulations show the populations of various packing configurations and radial distribution of intermolecular distance in the films at room temperature. It is also demonstrated that the external electric field (parallel or perpendicular to the substrate) perturbs the intermolecular distances in CuPc and F(16)CuPc films, especially for the slipped edge-to-face stackings. DFT calculations are then used to evaluate two key charge-transfer parameters, reorganization energy and transfer integral. An electrostatics embedding model is employed to approximately consider the external electrostatics contributions to reorganization energy. The thermal-averaged mobility is consequently estimated by taking account of both electronic structures of charge-hopping pairs and dynamic fluctuations in film morphologies under various experimental conditions. It is found that CuPc has smaller reorganization energy and larger hole (electron) mobilities than F(16)CuPc. Under the external electric field of 10(4)-10(7) V cm(-1), both hole and electron mobilities of CuPc and F(16)CuPc films would decrease to 1-3 orders of magnitude. CuPc (F(16)CuPc) films show substantial orientation dependence of mobilities on the ratio of standing-up versus lying-down orientations falling in the range of 10-1000.

Substituent effects on packing entropy and film morphologies in the nucleation of functionalized pentacenes on SiO2 substrate: molecular dynamics simulations.

The changes in structural ordering, packing entropy, free energy, and film morphologies in the initial nucleation processes of pentacene (Pn), 6, 13-bis(t-butylethynyl) pentacene (t-Bu Pn), and 6, 13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene (TIPS Pn) on the SiO(2) substrate were investigated, by using the molecular dynamics simulations. During the nucleation, the rod-like Pn molecules tend to diffuse rapidly and have different orientations on the SiO(2) surface. At the low coverage, the t-Bu Pn and TIPS Pn molecules with the branched topological structures almost lie flat on the substrate. On the basis of statistical distribution of various packing configurations of the functionalized Pn pairs, the packing entropy is estimated according to the Boltzmann formula. The packing entropy abruptly decreases in the early stage of deposition. Once the critical nucleus size is reached, the packing entropy converges to a constant value. As the coverage increases, the monolayer films of Pn and its branched derivatives become more ordered. The TIPS Pn with the relatively larger molecular area would occasionally stand on the surface during the nucleation, resulting in the dramatic changes in free energy. In the monolayers, the functionalized Pn molecules are packing more orderly than those in amorphous solids, but less orderly than those in crystals. The degree of order of these monolayers increases as the size of the substituents increases. The understanding of substituent effects on nucleation processes and packing structures is helpful to fabricate organic thin films with well-predefined molecular orientations.