High-Mobility Self-Assembling Truxenone-Based n-Type Organic Semiconductors.

Area of Science:

• Organic electronics
• Materials science
• Supramolecular chemistry

Background:

• Disk-like molecules (discotic) are investigated for organic electronics.
• Functionalization of aromatic cores influences self-assembly and charge transport.
• Truxene derivatives offer a promising core structure for discotic materials.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize and characterize novel truxenone derivatives with peripheral alkyl chains.
• To investigate the effect of alkyl chain positioning on self-assembly and semiconducting properties.
• To achieve high charge-carrier mobility in discotic organic materials.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of functionalized truxenone derivatives.
• X-ray diffraction and microscopy for studying self-assembly.
• Space charge-limited current (SCLC) technique for charge-carrier mobility measurements.
• Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations for electronic structure analysis.

Main Results:

• Successful synthesis of truxenone derivatives with varied alkyl chain attachments.
• Demonstrated formation of well-ordered columnar assemblies by distancing alkyl chains.
• Achieved electron mobility exceeding 1 cm^2 V^-1 s^-1 for a decynyl-functionalized truxenone.
• DFT calculations revealed efficient intermolecular coupling and moderate reorganization energies.

Conclusions:

• Positioning of peripheral alkyl chains is crucial for controlling self-assembly and charge transport in discotic truxenones.
• These materials exhibit promising semiconducting properties for organic electronic devices.
• The developed truxenone derivatives represent a new class of high-performance organic semiconductors.