Molecular Packing Topology and Interactions to Decipher Mechanical Compliances in Dicyano-distyrylbenzene Derivatives.

Flexible optoelectronics is the need of the hour as the market moves toward wearable and conformable devices. Crystalline π-conjugated materials offer high performance as active materials compared to their amorphous counterpart, but they are typically brittle. This poses a significant challenge that needs to be overcome to unfold their potential in optoelectronic devices. Unveiling the molecular packing topology and identifying interaction descriptors that can seamlessly accommodate strain offers essential guiding principles for developing conjugated materials as active components in flexible optoelectronics. The molecular packing and interaction topology of eight crystal systems of dicyano-distyrylbenzene derivatives are investigated. Face-to-face π-stacks in an inclined orientation relative to the bending surface can accommodate expansion and compression with minimal molecular motion from their equilibrium positions. This configuration exhibits good compliance towards mechanical strain, while a similar structure with a criss-cross arrangement capable of distributing applied strain equally in opposite directions enhances the flexibility. Molecular arrangements that cannot reversibly undergo expansion and compression exhibit brittleness. In the isometric CT crystals, the disproportionate strength of the interactions along the bending plane and orthogonal directions makes these materials sustain a moderate bending strain. These results provide an updated explanation for the elastic bending in semiconducting π-conjugated crystals.

Multifunctional Lanthanide-Doped Binary Fluorides and Graphene Oxide Nanocomposites Via a Task-Specific Ionic Liquid.

Graphene oxide-based nanocomposites (NCMs) exhibit diverse photonic and biophotonic applications. Innovative nanoengineering using a task-specific ionic liquid (IL), namely, 1-butyl-3-methyl tetrafluoroborate [C4mim][BF4], allows one to access a unique class of luminescent nanocomposites formed between lanthanide-doped binary fluorides and graphene oxide (GO). Here the IL is used as a solvent, templating agent, and as a reaction partner for the nanocomposite synthesis, that is, "all three in one". Our study shows that GO controls the size of the NCMs; however, it can tune the luminescence properties too. For example, the excitation spectrum of Ce3+ is higher-energy shifted when GO is attached. In addition, magnetic properties of GdF3:Tb3+ nanoparticles (NPs) and GdF3:Tb3+-GO NCMs are also studied at room temperature (300 K) and very low temperature (2 K). High magnetization results for the NPs (e.g., 6.676 emu g-1 at 300 K and 184.449 emu g-1 at 2 K in the applied magnetic field from +50 to -50 kOe) and NCMs promises their uses in many photonic and biphotonic applications including magnetic resonance imaging, etc.

Enabling Control over Mechanical Conformity and Luminescence in Molecular Crystals: Interaction Engineering in Action.

Molecular crystals of π-conjugated molecules are of great interest as the highly ordered dense packing offers superior charge and exciton transport compared with its amorphous counterparts. However, integration into optoelectronic devices remains a major challenge owing to its inherently brittle nature. Herein, control over the mechanical conformity in single crystals of pyridine-appended thiazolothiazole derivatives is reported by modulating the molecular packing through interaction engineering. Two polymorphs were prepared by achieving control over the thermodynamic/kinetic factors of crystallization; one of the polymorphs exhibits elastic bending whereas the other is brittle. The control over the bending ability was achieved by forming co-crystals with hydrogen/halogen bond donors. A seamless extended crisscross pattern with respect to the bend plane through a ditopic hydrogen-bonding motif showed the highest compliance towards mechanical bending, whereas the co-crystals with a layered crisscross arrangement with segregated layers of co-formers exhibit slightly lower bending conformity. These results update the rationale behind the plastic/elastic bending in molecular crystals. The co-crystals of ditopic halogen bond co-assemblies are particularly appealing for waveguiding applications as the co-crystals blend high mechanical flexibility and luminescence properties. The hydrogen bonded co-crystals are non-emissive in nature owing to excited state proton transfer dynamics. The rationale behind the fluorescence properties of these materials was also established from DFT calculations in a quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) framework.