TY - JOUR A1 - Kim, Jin Hong A1 - Schembri, Tim A1 - Bialas, David A1 - Stolte, Matthias A1 - Würthner, Frank T1 - Slip‐Stacked J‐Aggregate Materials for Organic Solar Cells and Photodetectors BT - This paper is dedicated to Prof. Daoben Zhu on the occasion of his 80th birthday JF - Advanced Materials N2 - Dye–dye interactions affect the optical and electronic properties in organic semiconductor films of light harvesting and detecting optoelectronic applications. This review elaborates how to tailor these properties of organic semiconductors for organic solar cells (OSCs) and organic photodiodes (OPDs). While these devices rely on similar materials, the demands for their optical properties are rather different, the former requiring a broad absorption spectrum spanning from the UV over visible up to the near‐infrared region and the latter an ultra‐narrow absorption spectrum at a specific, targeted wavelength. In order to design organic semiconductors satisfying these demands, fundamental insights on the relationship of optical properties are provided depending on molecular packing arrangement and the resultant electronic coupling thereof. Based on recent advancements in the theoretical understanding of intermolecular interactions between slip‐stacked dyes, distinguishing classical J‐aggregates with predominant long‐range Coulomb coupling from charge transfer (CT)‐mediated or ‐coupled J‐aggregates, whose red‐shifts are primarily governed by short‐range orbital interactions, is suggested. Within this framework, the relationship between aggregate structure and functional properties of representative classes of dye aggregates is analyzed for the most advanced OSCs and wavelength‐selective OPDs, providing important insights into the rational design of thin‐film optoelectronic materials. KW - crystal engineering KW - exciton coupling KW - J‐aggregates KW - organic photodiodes KW - organic solar cells Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-276537 VL - 34 IS - 22 ER - TY - THES A1 - Shen, Chia-An T1 - Dicyanomethylene Squaraines: Aggregation and G-Quadruplex Complexation T1 - Dicyanomethylen-Squaraine: Aggregation und G-Quadruplex-Komplexierung N2 - Squaraine dyes have attracted more attention in the past decade due to their strong and narrow absorption and fluorescence along with the easily functionalized molecular structure. One successful approach of core functionalization is to replace one oxygen of the squaric carbonyl group with a dicyanomethylene group, which shifts the absorption and emission into the near infrared (NIR) region and at the same time leads to a rigid, planar structure with C2v symmetry. However, such squaraines tend to aggregate cofacially in solution due to dispersion forces and dipole-dipole interactions, usually leading to H-type exciton coupling with undesired blue-shifted spectrum and quenched fluorescence. Therefore, the goal of my research was the design of dicyanomethylene-substituted squaraine dyes that self-assemble into extended aggregates in solution with J-type coupling, in order to retain or even enhance their outstanding optical properties. Toward this goal, bis(squaraine) dyes were envisioned with two squaraine units covalently linked to trigger a slip-stacked packing motif within the aggregates to enable J-type coupling. In my first project, bis(squaraine) dye BisSQ1 was synthesized, in which two dicyanomethylene squaraine chromophores are covalently linked. Concentration and temperature-dependent UV/Vis/NIR spectroscopy experiments reveal that BisSQ1 undergoes cooperative self-assembly resulting in J-type aggregates in a solvent mixture of toluene/1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane (TCE) (98:2, v/v). The J type exciton coupling is evident from the significantly red shifted absorption maximum at 886 nm and the fluorescence peak at 904 nm. In conclusion, this was a first example to direct squaraine dye aggregation in solution to the more desired slip-stacked packing leading to J-type exciton coupling by simply connecting two dyes in a head-to-tail bis chromophore structure. Connecting two squaraine dyes with an additional phenylene spacer (BisSQ2) leads to two different polymorphs with very distinct absorption spectra upon cooling down a solution of BisSQ2 in a solvent mixture of toluene/TCE (98:2, v/v) with different rates. Accordingly, rapid cooling resulted in rigid helical nanorods with an absorption spectrum showing a panchromatic feature, while slow cooling led to a sheet-like structure with a significant bathochromic shift in the absorption spectrum. It was discovered that the conventional molecular exciton model failed to explain the panchromatic absorption features of the nanorods for the given packing arrangement, therefore more profound theoretical investigations based on the Essential States Model (ESM) were applied to unveil the importance of intermolecular charge transfer (ICT) to adequately describe the panchromatic absorption spectrum. Moreover, the red-shift observed in the spectrum for the sheet-like structure can be assigned to the interplay of Coulomb coupling and ICT-mediated coupling. Furthermore, the same bis-chromophore strategy was adopted for constructing an NIR-II emitter with a bathochromically-shifted spectrum. In chloroform, BisSQ3 exhibits an absorption maximum at 961 nm with a significant bathochromic shift (1020 cm−1) compared to the reference mono-squaraine SQ, indicating intramolecular J-type coupling via head-to-tail arrangement of two squaraine dyes. Moreover, BisSQ3 shows a fluorescence peak at 971 nm with a decent quantum yield of 0.33%. In less polar toluene, BisSQ3 self-assembles into nanofibers with additional intermolecular J-type coupling, causing a pronounced bathochromic shift with absorption maximum at 1095 nm and a fluorescence peak at 1116 nm. Thus, connecting two quinoline-based squaraines in a head-to-tail fashion leads to not only intra-, but also intermolecular J-type exciton coupling, which serves as a promising strategy to shift the absorption and emission of organic fluorophores into the NIR-II window while retaining decent quantum yields. In conclusion, my research illustrates based on squaraine dyes how a simple modification of the molecular structure can significantly affect the aggregation behavior and further alter the optical properties of dye aggregates. Elongated supramolecular structures based on dicyanomethylene substituted squaraine dyes were successfully established by covalently linking two squaraine units to form a bis-chromophore structure. Then, a simple but efficient general approach was established to direct squaraine dye aggregation in solution to the more desired slip-stacked packing leading to J-type exciton coupling by directly connecting two squaraine dyes in a head-to-tail fashion without spacer units. Moreover, the additional spacer between the squaraine dyes in BisSQ2 allowed different molecular conformations, which leads to two different morphologies depending on the cooling rates for a hot solution. Hence, this is a promising strategy to realize supramolecular polymorphism. In general, it is expected that the concept of constructing J-aggregates by the bis-chromophore approach can be extended to entirely different classes of dyes since J-aggregates possess a variety of features such as spectral shifts into the NIR window, fluorescence enhancement, and light harvesting, which are commonly observed and utilized for numerous fundamental studies and applications. Moreover, the insights on short-range charge transfer coupling for squaraine dyes is considered of relevance for all materials based on alternating donor-acceptor π-systems. The panchromatic spectral feature is in particular crucial for acceptor-donor-acceptor (ADA) dyes, which are currently considered as very promising materials for the development of bulk heterojunction solar cells. N2 - Squarainfarbstoffe haben in den letzten Jahren aufgrund ihrer hervorragenden optischen Eigenschaften, zu denen ein Cyanin-ähnliches Absorptions- und Fluoreszenzverhalten zählt, in Kombination mit einer leicht funktionalisierbaren Molekülstruktur immer mehr Aufmerksamkeit auf sich gezogen.22 Ein erfolgreicher Ansatz der Kernfunktionalisierung besteht darin, ein Sauerstoffatom der Quadratsäure-Carbonylgruppe durch eine Dicyanomethyleneinheit zu ersetzen, was die Absorption und Emission in den nahen infraroten (NIR-) Bereich verschiebt und gleichzeitig zu einer starren planaren Struktur mit C2v Symmetrie und einem Grundzustandsdipolmoment führt.27 Diese Eigenschaften haben sich als vorteilhaft für die π-π-Aggregation von diesen Squarainen auf G-Quadruplex (G4) Strukturen erwiesen, wie in Kapitel 6 beschrieben. Solche Squaraine neigen jedoch zur Bildung von Dimeren oder kleinen Aggregaten in Lösung mit kofazialen Chromophoranordnungen aufgrund Dispersionskräften und Dipol-Dipol-Wechselwirkungen. Dies resultiert in der Regel zu einer H-artigen exzitonischen Kopplung mit unerwünschten, blauverschobenen Absorptionsbanden und gelöschter Fluoreszenz.28 Daher war das Ziel dieser Dissertation, Dicyanomethylen-substituierte Squarainfarbstoffe zu entwickeln, die sich in Lösung zu verlängerten Aggregaten mit J-artiger Kopplung selbst organisieren. Auf diese Weise sollten die ausgezeichneten optischen Eigenschaften der Squarainfarbstoffe erhalten oder sogar verbessert werden. Zu diesem Zweck, wurden Bis(squarain)-Farbstoffe synthetisiert, in denen zwei Squarain-Einheiten kovalent verbunden sind, was zu einer gestapelten Anordnung mit longitudinalem Versatz innerhalb der Aggregate und damit zu einer J-artigen Kopplung führt. ... KW - Squaraine KW - Selbstorganisation KW - Farbstoff KW - Supramolekulare Chemie KW - Quadruplex-DNS KW - Self-assembly KW - Aggregation KW - exciton coupling KW - cooperative KW - spectroscopy Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-243599 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schembri, Tim A1 - Kim, Jin Hong A1 - Liess, Andreas A1 - Stepanenko, Vladimir A1 - Stolte, Matthias A1 - Würthner, Frank T1 - Semitransparent Layers of Social Self‐Sorting Merocyanine Dyes for Ultranarrow Bandwidth Organic Photodiodes JF - Advanced Optical Materials N2 - Two dipolar merocyanines consisting of the same π‐conjugated chromophore but different alkyl substituents adopt very different packing arrangements in their respective solid state with either H‐ or J‐type exciton coupling, leading to ultranarrow absorption bands at 477 and 750 nm, respectively, due to exchange narrowing. The social self‐sorting behavior of these push‐pull chromophores in their mixed thin films is evaluated and the impact on morphology as well as opto‐electronical properties is determined. The implementation of this well‐tuned two‐component material with tailored optical features allows to optimize planar heterojunction organic photodiodes with fullerene ​(C\(_{60}\)) with either dual or single wavelength selectivity in the blue and NIR spectral range with ultranarrow bandwidths of only 11 nm (200 cm\(^{-1}\)) and an external quantum efficiency of up to 18% at 754 nm under 0 V bias. The application of these photodiodes as low‐power consuming heart rate monitors is demonstrated by a reflectance‐mode photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor. KW - exciton coupling KW - merocyanine dyes/pigments KW - narrow bandwidth KW - organic photodiodes KW - social self‐sorting Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-244762 VL - 9 IS - 15 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bialas, David A1 - Zitzler-Kunkel, André A1 - Kirchner, Eva A1 - Schmidt, David A1 - Würthner, Frank T1 - Structural and quantum chemical analysis of exciton coupling in homo- and heteroaggregate stacks of merocyanines JF - Nature Communications N2 - Exciton coupling is of fundamental importance and determines functional properties of organic dyes in (opto-)electronic and photovoltaic devices. Here we show that strong exciton coupling is not limited to the situation of equal chromophores as often assumed. Quadruple dye stacks were obtained from two bis(merocyanine) dyes with same or different chromophores, respectively, which dimerize in less-polar solvents resulting in the respective homo- and heteroaggregates. The structures of the quadruple dye stacks were assigned by NMR techniques and unambiguously confirmed by single-crystal X-ray analysis. The heteroaggregate stack formed from the bis(merocyanine) bearing two different chromophores exhibits remarkably different ultraviolet/vis absorption bands compared with those of the homoaggregate of the bis(merocyanine) comprising two identical chromophores. Quantum chemical analysis based on an extension of Kasha’s exciton theory appropriately describes the absorption properties of both types of stacks revealing strong exciton coupling also between different chromophores within the heteroaggregate. KW - exciton coupling KW - merocyanines KW - quantum chemical analysis Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-170200 VL - 7 ER -