Effect of Alkyl Substituents on 2D and 1D Self-assembly and Photovoltaic Properties of Hydrogen-bonded Oligothiophene Rosettes

Hayato Ouchi (1) , Takahiro Kizaki (2) , Xu Lin (3) , Deepak D. Prabhu (1) , Nagahiro Hoshi , Fabien Silly (4) , Ken-Ichi Nakayama (2) , Shiki Yagai (1)

1 OUJ - The Open University of Japan [Chiba]
2 Graduate School of Science and Engineering [Yamagata]
3 ICS - Institut Charles Sadron
4 LEPO - Laboratoire d'Electronique et nanoPhotonique Organique

Hydrogen-bonding oligothiophene bearing octyl chains self-assembles into extended nanorods via the formation of cyclic hexamer. The nanorods can function as an electron-donating materials for electron-accepting PC71BM in bulk-heterojunction solar cells. We report the impact of longer alkyl chains on 2D and 1D assembly. Compared to the previously reported hexylated derivative, newly synthesized octylated derivative showed a lower degree of ordering in 2D assembly on a solid–liquid interface, but higher capability in 1D self-assembly into nanorods upon solution-casting.

Keywords: Self-assembly; Oligothiophene; Organic photovoltaics

Domains: Physics [physics]

Hayato Ouchi, Takahiro Kizaki, Xu Lin, Deepak D. Prabhu, Nagahiro Hoshi, et al.. Effect of Alkyl Substituents on 2D and 1D Self-assembly and Photovoltaic Properties of Hydrogen-bonded Oligothiophene Rosettes. Chemistry Letters, 2017, 46 (8), pp.1102 - 1104. ⟨10.1246/cl.170407⟩. ⟨cea-01591477⟩