RESUMO
The superweak tetrakis(nonafluoro-tert-butoxy)aluminate coordinating anion was employed to introduce pseudo-gas-phase conditions to the 2-[5-(1,3-dihydro-1,3,3-trimethyl-2H-indol-2-ylidene)-1,3-pentadien-1-yl]-1,3,3-trimethyl-3H-indolium chromophore. The resulting formation of a photoactive organic-inorganic hybrid salt has led to a highly stabilized excited state of the organic chromophore mainly due to the minimized lattice energy and Coulomb interactions. These highly beneficial features caused by the well dispersed negative charge of the anion have led to an enhanced neat spin-casted film fluorescence intensity, prolonged fluorescence lifetime, smooth thin film surfaces and a record power photovoltaic efficiency of 3.8 % when compared to organic salts of this particular chromophore containing anions with localised negative charge. Clear evidence is given that a superweak coordinating anion is an emerging key parameter in cyanine dye photochemistry. This approach can be seen as a general guideline to prepare highly efficient ionic dyes for organic semiconductor applications.
RESUMO
A symmetrical cyanine dye chromophore is modified with different counteranions to study the effect on crystal packing, polarizability, thermal stability, optical properties, light absorbing layer morphology, and organic photovoltaic (OPV) device parameters. Four sulfonate-based anions and the bulky bistriflylimide anion are introduced to the 2-[5-(1,3-dihydro-1,3,3-trimethyl-2H-indol-2-ylidene)-1,3-pentadien-1-yl]-1,3,3-trimethyl-3H-indolium chromophore using an Amberlyst A26 (OH- form) anion exchanger. Anionic charge distribution clearly correlates with device performance, whereby an average efficiency of 2% was reached in a standard bilayer organic solar. Evidence is given that the negative charge of the anion distributed over a large number of atoms is significantly more important than the size of the organic moieties of the sulfonate charge carrying group. This provides a clear strategy for future design of more efficient cyanine dyes for OPV applications.
RESUMO
Herein we describe an easily accessible class of superbasic proton sponges based on the 1,8-bisphosphazenylnaphthalene (PN) proton pincer motif and P-alkyl substituents ranging from methyl (TMPN) to n-butyl (TBPN), isopropyl (TiPrPN) and cyclopentyl (TcyPPN). These neutral bases with a pK(BH)(+) value (MeCN) of ~30 were accessible via a Kirsanov condensation using commercially available 1,8-diaminonaphthalene, and in case of TMPN and TBPN, simple one-pot procedures starting from trisalkylphosphanes can be performed. Furthermore, the known pyrrolidinyl-substituted superbase TPPN previously synthesized via a Staudinger reaction could also be prepared by the Kirsanov strategy allowing its preparation in a larger scale. The four alkyl-substituted proton sponges were structurally characterized in their protonated form; molecular XRD structures were also obtained for unprotonated TiPrPN and TcyPPN. Moreover, we present a detailed description of spectroscopic features of chelating bisphosphazenes including TPPN and its hyperbasic homologue P2-TPPN on which we reported recently. The four alkyl-substituted superbases were investigated with respect to their basic features by computational means and by NMR titration experiments revealing unexpectedly high experimental pK(BH)(+) values in acetonitrile between 29.3 for TMPN and 30.9 for TBPN. Besides their thermodynamic basicity, we exemplarily studied the kinetic basicity of TMPN and TPPN by means of NMR-spectroscopic methods. Furthermore, the competing nucleophilic versus basic properties were examined by reacting the proton sponges with ethyl iodide. Insight into the coordination chemistry of chelating superbases was provided by reacting TMPN with trimethylaluminum and trimethylgallium to give cationic complexes of Group XIII metal alkyls that were structurally characterized.
