Morphological Structure and Optical Property of Anthracene Single Crystals Grown from Solution

Abstract

Large organic single crystals are prepared simply by crystallization from solution. Anthracene single crystals with positive hexagonal plane (5 Â 5 Â 0:16 mm 3 ), anamorphic hexagonal plane (7 Â 4 Â 0:19 mm 3 ), and long hexagonal plane (14 Â 4 Â 0:29 mm 3 ) are obtained using carbon tetrachloride, acetone and benzene, respectively. Different morphologies characterized by optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy vary according to the organic solvent used, which are mainly determined by the crystal-solvent interaction on the solid-liquid interface during the crystal growth process. Furthermore, the differences in crystal habits could result in the variations of crystal electronic and optical characteristics, such as charge carrier mobility and electro-/photo-luminescence. It was found that the photoluminescence (PL) properties of the crystals are dependent on the crystal size and shape.

Growth mechanism of large-size anthracene single crystals grown by a solution technique

“…The strong diffraction peak at 9.611 corresponds to that of (0 0 1), and other equivalent periodic peaks, namely (0 0 2), (0 0 3), (0 0 4), (0 0 5), (0 0 6), can be observed. The d 001 is 9.21Å and corresponds well with the reports before [16]. Just as pentacene, anthracene single crystals also have two kinds of polymorphs: one polymorph is always grown from vapor phase and its d 001 is 9.17Å; the other polymorph is always grown from solution and its d 001 is 9.21Å.…”

“…The surface roughness is mainly determined by temperature, supersaturation, and surface tension [16]. Surface energy and the crystalsolvent interactions have great effects on the shape of crystals.…”

“…The solvent also has great effects on the shape of crystals in solution. In aromatic systems, the facets (1 0 0) and (1 0 0) of anthracene single crystal have a strong p-p stacking interaction with the solvent [16]. The solvent that surrounds the crystal has significant effect on the deposition.…”

“…Anthracene single crystals were prepared by the solution method for the first time in 1958 [13][14][15]. In 2007, Li et al [16] had obtained large-size anthracene single crystals from solution and thought that the surface tension of solvents and the interactions between crystals and solvents have important effects on the surface roughness and geometrical shape of crystals. However, the growth mechanism of anthracene single crystals grown by the solution method has not been discussed.…”

Rapid growth of thin and flexible organic semiconductor single crystal Anthracene by solution growth technique for device fabrication

“…From the figure it could be seen that the scanned area exhibited considerable flatness and the surface roughness (rms) was measured to be about 0.11 nm. Subsequently, the surface roughness of rapid grown AN was compared with those obtained for AN crystals grown by melt technique and solution growth method using different solvents [9,10] (Table 1). From the Table it Fig.…”