Efficient, stable, and solution-based n-doping of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is highly desired for complementary circuits but remains a significant challenge. Here, we present 1,2,4,5-tetrakis(tetramethylguanidino)benzene (ttmgb) as a strong two-electron donor that enables the fabrication of purely n-type SWCNT field-effect transistors (FETs). We apply ttmgb to networks of monochiral, semiconducting (6,5) SWCNTs that show intrinsic ambipolar behavior in bottom-contact/top-gate FETs and obtain unipolar n-type transport with 3-5-fold enhancement of electron mobilities (approximately 10 cm V s), while completely suppressing hole currents, even at high drain voltages. These n-type FETs show excellent on/off current ratios of up to 10, steep subthreshold swings (80-100 mV/dec), and almost no hysteresis. Their excellent device characteristics stem from the reduction of the work function of the gold electrodes via contact doping, blocking of hole injection by ttmgb on the electrode surface, and removal of residual water from the SWCNT network by ttmgb protonation. The ttmgb-treated SWCNT FETs also display excellent environmental stability under bias stress in ambient conditions. Complementary inverters based on n- and p-doped SWCNT FETs exhibit rail-to-rail operation with high gain and low power dissipation. The simple and stable ttmgb molecule thus serves as an example for the larger class of guanidino-functionalized aromatic compounds as promising electron donors for high-performance thin film electronics.

In this work the first phenazine derivatives with guanidino substituents were prepared and their structural and electronic properties studied in detail. The guanidino groups decrease the HOMO-LUMO gap, massively increase the quantum yield for fluorescence and offer sites for metal coordination. The yellow-orange colored 2,3,7,8-tetraguanidino-substituted phenazine shows intense fluorescence. The wavelength of the fluorescence signal is strongly solvent dependent, covering a region from 515 nm in Et2O solution (with a record quantum yield of 0.39 in Et2O) to 640 nm in water. 2,3-Bisguanidino-substituted phenazine is less fluorescent (maximum quantum yield of 0.17 in THF), but exhibits extremely large Stokes shifts. In contrast, guanidino-functionalized fluorenes emit only very weakly. Subsequently, the influence of coordination on the electronic properties and especially the fluorescence of the phenazine system was analysed. Coordination first takes place at the guanidino groups, and leads to a blue shift of the luminescence signal as well as a massive decrease of the luminescence lifetime. Luminescence is almost quenched completely upon Cu(I) coordination. On the other hand, in the case of Zn(II) coordination the fluorescence signal remains strong (quantum yield of 0.36 in CH3CN). In the case of strong zinc Lewis acids, an excess of metal compound leads to additional coordination at the phenazine N atoms. This is accompanied by significant red-shifts of the lowest-energy transition in the absorption and fluorescence spectra. Pentanuclear complexes with two phenazine units were isolated and structurally characterized, and further aggregation leads to chain polymers.

2,3-Bis- and 2,3,7,8-tetrakisguanidino-substituted phenazines are intensely-coloured dyes that offer two different sites for metal coordination or benzylation, namely the imino nitrogen atoms of the guanidino groups and the phenazine nitrogen atoms. In this work, sequential coordination at both sites is studied, and the effects on the electronic structure and optical properties are analyzed. The step-wise coordination is used to synthesize tetranuclear mixed-valence (CuI)2(CuII)2 and heterobimetallic Cu2Ni2 complexes. Coordination at the guanidino groups switches on a ligand-metal charge-transfer character of electronic transitions in the visible region, leading to a massive intensity gain in the case of copper coordination. The second coordination step with CuI takes place at the phenazine nitrogen atoms and further decreases the ligand frontier orbitals. In the case of two tricoordinated CuI atoms in the product complex, the charge-transfer character of the electronic excitation vanishes, while their energies are very similar. On the other hand, for CuI atoms with a coordination number of only 2, the stronger Cu-N bond leads to a red-shift of the electronic transitions.