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    Charge‐Compensated N‐Doped π ‐Conjugated Polymers: Toward both Thermodynamic Stability of N‐Doped States in Water and High Electron Conductivity
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2022) Borrmann, Fabian; Tsuda, Takuya; Guskova, Olga; Kiriy, Nataliya; Hoffmann, Cedric; Neusser, David; Ludwigs, Sabine; Lappan, Uwe; Simon, Frank; Geisler, Martin; Debnath, Bipasha; Krupskaya, Yulia; Al‐Hussein, Mahmoud; Kiriy, Anton
    The understanding and applications of electron-conducting π-conjugated polymers with naphtalene diimide (NDI) blocks show remarkable progress in recent years. Such polymers demonstrate a facilitated n-doping due to the strong electron deficiency of the main polymer chain and the presence of the positively charged side groups stabilizing a negative charge of the n-doped backbone. Here, the n-type conducting NDI polymer with enhanced stability of its n-doped states for prospective “in-water” applications is developed. A combined experimental–theoretical approach is used to identify critical features and parameters that control the doping and electron transport process. The facilitated polymer reduction ability and the thermodynamic stability in water are confirmed by electrochemical measurements and doping studies. This material also demonstrates a high conductivity of 10−2 S cm−1 under ambient conditions and 10−1 S cm−1 in vacuum. The modeling explains the stabilizing effects for various dopants. The simulations show a significant doping-induced “collapse” of the positively charged side chains on the core bearing a partial negative charge. This explains a decrease in the lamellar spacing observed in experiments. This study fundamentally enables a novel pathway for achieving both thermodynamic stability of the n-doped states in water and the high electron conductivity of polymers.
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    Optical Anisotropy and Momentum-Dependent Excitons in Dibenzopentacene Single Crystals
    (Washington, DC : ACS Publications, 2022) Graf, Lukas; Liu, Fupin; Naumann, Marco; Roth, Friedrich; Debnath, Bipasha; Büchner, Bernd; Krupskaya, Yulia; Popov, Alexey A.; Knupfer, Martin
    High-quality single crystals of the organic semiconductor (1,2;8,9)-dibenzopentacene were grown via physical vapor transport. The crystal structure─unknown before─was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction; polarization-dependent optical absorption measurements display a large anisotropy in the ac plane of the crystals. The overall Davydov splitting is ∼110 meV, which is slightly lower than that in the close relative pentacene (120 meV). Momentum-dependent electron energy-loss spectroscopy measurements show a clear exciton dispersion of the Davydov components. An analysis of the dispersion using a simple 1D model indicates smaller electron- and hole-transfer integrals in dibenzopentacene as compared to pentacene. The spectral weight distribution of the excitation spectra is strongly momentum-dependent and demonstrates a strong momentum-dependent admixture of Frenkel excitons, charge-transfer excitons, and vibrational modes.
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    Sequentially Processed P3HT/CN6-CP•−NBu4+ Films: Interfacial or Bulk Doping?
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2020) Karpov, Yevhen; Kiriy, Nataliya; Formanek, Petr; Hoffmann, Cedric; Beryozkina, Tetyana; Hambsch, Mike; Al-Hussein, Mahmoud; Mannsfeld, Stefan C.B.; Büchner, Bernd; Debnath, Bipasha; Bretschneider, Michael; Krupskaya, Yulia; Lissel, Franziska; Kiriy, Anton
    Derivatives of the hexacyano-[3]-radialene anion radical (CN6-CP•−) emerge as a promising new family of p-dopants having a doping strength comparable to that of archetypical dopant 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyano-quinodimethane (F4TCNQ). Here, mixed solution (MxS) and sequential processing (SqP) doping methods are compared by using a model semiconductor poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and the dopant CN6-CP•−NBu4 + (NBu4 + = tetrabutylammonium). MxS films show a moderate yet thickness-independent conductivity of ≈0.1 S cm−1. For the SqP case, the highest conductivity value of ≈6 S cm−1 is achieved for the thinnest (1.5–3 nm) films whereas conductivity drops two orders of magnitudes for 100 times thicker films. These results are explained in terms of an interfacial doping mechanism realized in the SqP films, where only layers close to the P3HT/dopant interface are doped efficiently, whereas internal P3HT layers remain essentially undoped. This structure is in agreement with transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and Kelvin probe force microscopy results. The temperature-dependent conductivity measurements reveal a lower activation energy for charge carriers in SqP samples than in MxS films (79 meV vs 110 meV), which could be a reason for their superior conductivity. © 2020 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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    Directed exciton transport highways in organic semiconductors
    ([London] : Nature Publishing Group UK, 2023) Müller, Kai; Schellhammer, Karl S.; Gräßler, Nico; Debnath, Bipasha; Liu, Fupin; Krupskaya, Yulia; Leo, Karl; Knupfer, Martin; Ortmann, Frank
    Exciton bandwidths and exciton transport are difficult to control by material design. We showcase the intriguing excitonic properties in an organic semiconductor material with specifically tailored functional groups, in which extremely broad exciton bands in the near-infrared-visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum are observed by electron energy loss spectroscopy and theoretically explained by a close contact between tightly packing molecules and by their strong interactions. This is induced by the donor–acceptor type molecular structure and its resulting crystal packing, which induces a remarkable anisotropy that should lead to a strongly directed transport of excitons. The observations and detailed understanding of the results yield blueprints for the design of molecular structures in which similar molecular features might be used to further explore the tunability of excitonic bands and pave a way for organic materials with strongly enhanced transport and built-in control of the propagation direction.