Preparation of new semiconducting corrole nanostructures and their application as gas sensor

Abstract

Herein, the meso-phenyl substituted corrolato copper complex Cu[Cor(Ph)2(p-HOPh)] 1 [Cor(Ph)2(p-HOPh) = 10-(4-hydroxylphenyl)-5,15-diphenylcorrole] is designed and successfully synthesized. Its self-assembly property is comparatively investigated with that of the analogue meso-phenyl substituted corrolato copper complex Cu[Cor(p-CH3OOCPh)3] 2 [Cor(p-CH3OOCPh)3 = 5,10,15-tris(p-carboxymethylphenyl)corrole] by various spectroscopic methods. The H-aggregate nature was revealed in both nanostructures formed from copper corroles 1 and 2 during the self-assembling process. But, in n-hexane copper corrole 1 self-assembled into large scale needle-like nanostructures, while copper corrole 2 self-assembled into ribbon-like bundles with long and flexible fibrils. The devices fabricated from these nanostructures display excellent semiconducting performance, with the electric conductivity as high as 1.8 × 10−4 for 1 and 2.0 × 10-3 S cm-1 for 2, respectively. Meanwhile, this two kinds of nanostructures exhibit highly sensitive n-type response to NO2 gas in the range of 100 ppb to 1 ppm at room temperature. Particularly, their sensor responses are fitting non-linear curves with respect to the NO2 gas concentrations (R2 > 0.99), suggesting the great potential applications of the copper corrolato derivatives in the field of chemical sensors.