Vapor-Phase Dehydrogenative Synthesis of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons for Garment-Integrated Solar Cells

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are compelling candidates for optoelectronic and spintronic devices due to their unique condensed phase electronic structures and potential for ambipolar charge transport. Unfortunately, most PAHs exhibit poor film forming properties that constrain their technological potential. While on-surface synthesis has been used to simultaneously synthesize and deposit monolayers of such compounds, this technique necessitates high temperatures, ultrahigh vacuums, and oriented metal surfaces that limit the practical synthesis and fabrication of PAH films. Here, a custom built hot-wall reactor is used to deposit higher-order acenaphthofluoranthenes via a vapor phase dehydrogenative synthesis performed under mild temperatures and pressures. This process creates an organic alloy of various fluoranthenes with differing extended pi-cores. The films can be deposited over any inert substrate, both planar and complex, and are patternable. Further, efficient resonant energy transfer is observed between chemical species within the films. Such properties make these films useful for addressing persistent issues with wearable optoelectronics, including a scarcity of ambipolar materials that are necessary to integrate solar cells with fabrics. Figure 1