Broadband-absorbing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon composite films on topologically complex substrates

Abstract

Abstract Reactive vapor deposition (RVD) allows researchers to coat a diverse set of textiles with robust films of conjugated macromolecules and build conformally-integrated nanostructured electronics on textiles. However, the number of precursors amenable to RVD are limited, which in turn limits the variety of device architectures and optoelectronic functions that can be integrated with textile substrates. Here, we develop a dehydrogenative coupling reaction that can be used to create uniform, conformal and patternable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) coatings on textiles using RVD protocols. PAHs possess large absorption coefficients, tunable band edges, high charge carrier mobilities and ambipolarity, meaning that a number of photonic and optoelectronic devices can be elaborated from the coatings reported here. We discuss, in particular, a fluoranthene/perifluoranthene composite PAH coating created using RVD, which exhibits strong light absorption over a large wavelength range and accompanying intermolecular energy transfer, qualifying it as a competitive photoactive material for conformally integrated, textile-based solar energy harvesters.