Self-assembly, optical and electrical properties of fork-tailed perylene bisimides

Abstract

Effect of side-chain length on self-assembly, optical and electrochemical properties of N,N′-di(1-pentylbutyl)perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic bisimide and N,N′-di(1-hexylpentyl)perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic bisimide has been studied. The photo-physical, thermal and electrochemical properties were studied using UV–Vis and fluorescence, differential scanning calorimetry, and cyclic voltammetry, respectively. The molecules self-assembled as 1D – rods and molecular bundles, self-assembly was studied using SEM, optical and fluorescence microscopic techniques. The results concluded that the compound with short tail exhibits low solubility and self-assembled faster. The photo-physical properties of the compounds were not much affected by varying the alkyl chain length. The compounds geometries were optimized at 6-31G∗ using DFT and the potentials were correlated with molecular orbitals.