Charge transfer complexes of fullerene[60] with porphyrins as molecular rectifiers. A theoretical study

Molecular diodes based on charge transfer complexes of fullerene[60] with different metalloporphyrins have been modeled. Their current-voltage characteristics and the rectification ratios (RR) were calculated using direct ab initio method at PBE/def2-SVP level of theory with D3 dispersion correction, for voltages ranging from -2 to +2 V. The highest RR of 32.5 was determined for the complex of fullerene[60] with zinc tetraphenylporphyrin at 0.8 V. Other molecular diodes possessed lower RR, however, all complexes showed RR higher than 1 at all bias voltages. The asymmetric evolutions and alignment of the molecular orbitals with the applied bias were found to be essential for generating the molecular diode rectification behavior. Metal nature of metalloporphyrins and the interaction porphyrin-electrode significantly affect RR of molecular diode. Large metal ions like Cd(2+) and Ag(2+) in metalloporphyrins disfavor rectification creating conducting channels in two directions, while smaller ions Zn(2+) and Cu(2+) favor rectification increasing the interaction between gold electrode and porphyrin macrocycle.