Self‐Assembled Gelators for Organic Electronics

Abstract

Nature excels at engineering materials by using the principles of chemical synthesis and molecular self-assembly with the help of noncovalent forces. Learning from these phenomena, scientists have been able to create a variety of self-assembled artificial materials of different size, shapes, and properties for wide ranging applications. An area of great interest in this regard is solvent-assisted gel formation with functional organic molecules, thus leading to one-dimensional fibers. Such fibers have improved electronic properties and are potential soft materials for organic electronic devices, particularly in bulk heterojunction solar cells. Described herein is how molecular self-assembly, which was originally proposed as a simple laboratory curiosity, has helped the evolution of a variety of soft functional materials useful for advanced electronic devices such as organic field-effect transistors and organic solar cells. Highlights on some of the recent developments are discussed.

Tuning Soft Nanostructures in Self‐assembled Supramolecular Gels: From Morphology Control to Morphology‐Dependent Functions

“…A variety of π-systems have been reported in the preparation of gels comprising supramolecular structures of different sizes, shapes, and properties. [ 10 ] By controlling the dimension and morphology of nanostructures consisting of optically and electronically active elements, some specifi c functions of self-assembled architectures, such as transportation of excitons and charges, would be presented. Here, we shall highlight how the morphology of organogels is relevant to the practical applications of gel-based systems in the fi elds of optics and electronics.…”

Nanophotonics and supramolecular chemistry

“…Ajayaghosh and coworkers have investigated the photonic characteristics of gel-type assemblies of rather small chromophore molecules [22][23][24]. For example, they researched thienylenevinylene-based gels ( Figure 1A) that exhibit epitaxial self-assembly to form aligned supramolecular wires [25].…”

Energy transfer in supramolecular materials for new applications in photonics and electronics

“…Other potential uses, such as electron transfer for solar energy conversion, have been the subject of numerous recent reviews. [13][14][15][16] ENERGY TRANSFER IN ORDERED SUPRAMOLECULAR AGGREGATES Energy transfer, also known as exciton hopping in the solid, involves the transfer of electronic excitation energy from one chromophore to another. Two principal mechanisms, one based on resonance between the electronic transition dipole moments of the donor and the acceptor (Förster energy transfer) and the other on an electron exchange mechanism (Dexter energy transfer) are possible.…”

“…As unidirectional growth can often be achieved by the incorporation of a linear geometry of complementary supramolecular interactions (for example, H-B), gel materials have been a common scaffold used to induce ordering of p-functional materials. 21,22 This area has been the topic of recent thorough reviews by Babu et al 16,23 and will not be discussed in detail except for the generation of white light from aggregates using energy transfer where it can be sometimes possible to follow the energy transfer across multiple chromphores in the assembly. This is the case in an acene-based organogel composed of a blue light-emitting anthracene donor co-assembled with tetracene and rubrene acceptors emitting in the green and red region, respectively.…”