Thin films of porphyrinperylene molecular array fabricated by electrophoresis methodology

Porphyrin-perylene dyad molecular arrays are impor-tant building blocks for mimic photosynthetic systems and molecular opto-electronics such as molecular wires, logic gates and molecular switches. In recent years, Wasielewski’s group1―3] and Bocian and Lindsey’s group4―7] have systematically investigated the electronic structure, the mechanism of transient photoinduced charge and/or energy transfer in a few representative porphyrin- perylene arrays, the acquired results threw light on th…

Thin films of porphyrin-perylene molecular array fabricated by electrophoresis methodology

Thin solid films of organic conjugated molecules are at the center of organic electronics. Low solubility and high sublimation temperature of porphyrin-perylene arrays make it impossible to fabricate uniform solid films with spin-coating and vacuum deposition methodology, though these arrays have important applications in the area of opto-electronics. Here we show that high quality thin films of a porphyrin-perylene array can be prepared by electrochemical deposition, a facile and widely used film-forming technique. The electrophoretic species are protonated porphyrin-perylene molecules, which allow us to grow molecular array films on electrodes. By annealing in ammonia atmosphere or in vacuum at elevated temperature, the protons coordinated with molecular arrays on the deposited films can be eliminated and the porphyrin-perylene arrays recovered to their pristine state.