Synthesis of linear, V-shaped and star-shaped asymmetrical perylene diimides bearing triphenylamine moiety for resistive memory application

Abstract

This study aims to explore the unidentified slants of the nature in respect of strengthening and facilitating the usage of memory storage devices to overcome the deficiencies in the existing data storage mechanism. We report three novel asymmetrical perylene diimides (AsPDIs) of linear, V-shaped and star-shaped structures for memory application. These AsPDIs were synthesized from the condensation of 4-aminotriphenylamine (ATPA), 4,4ʹ-diaminotriphenylamine (DATPA), 4,4ʹ,4ʹʹ-triaminotriphenylamine (TATPA), as the electron donor, and N-(2-ethylhexyl)-3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic acid-3,4-anhydride-9,10-imide (AsPDA), as the electron acceptor. The results of current-voltage (I-V) curves show that PDI-ATPA, PDI-DATPA and PDI-TATPA based memory devices exhibit in respective nonvolatile WORM, nonvolatile Flash and volatile SRAM memory behavior. The ON/OFF current ratios are up to 105 and the switching voltages are about 1.4 V, 1.3 V and 2.7 V, respectively. Influence of electron donor/acceptor ratio on the memory behavior was explored and the charge transfer mechanism responsible for the electrical bistability was demonstrated based on the optical, electrochemical results and the molecular simulation results. This study provides suitable candidates and feasible guidance for the advanced memory technology.