Effect of Side Chains on Charge Transfer in Quaterthiophene-Naphthalene Diimide Based Donor-Bridge-Acceptor Dyads

Abstract

We have probed the effect of side chains on the charge transfer dynamics in dyads containing quaterthiophene (QT) donor and naphthalene diimide (NDI) acceptor. The donor and the acceptor are covalently linked using a flexible linker. Four dyads (1–4) were synthesized with the quaterthiophene bearing hexyl side chain and the naphthalene diimide bearing hydrocarbon, fluorocarbon, branched or polar side chains. The UV-Vis spectra for these dyads showed the existence of a donor-acceptor complex. The time-resolved fluorescence (TRF) decay studies show a rapid quenching of fluorescence in all the dyads upon excitation of the donor. We found that the side chains on the NDI did not alter the quenching rates in solution.

Keywords:

• Quaterthiophene
• naphthalene diimide
• side chain incompatibility
• time-resolved fluorescence

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the ACS Petroleum Research Fund, National Science Foundation Materials Research and Science Center on Polymers (DMR 0820506), and PHASE Energy Frontier Research Center supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, through grant DE-SC0001087.