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Achieving tunable electrical conductivity in organic materials is a key challenge for the development of next-generation semiconductors. This study demonstrates a novel approach using triphenylamine (TPA) bis-urea macrocycles as supramolecular hosts for guest-induced modulation of charge-transfer (CT) properties. By encapsulating guests with varying reduction potentials, including 2,5-dichloro-1,4-benzoquinone (ClBQ), 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BTD), and malononitrile (MN), we observed significant changes in the electrical conductivity. Crystals of the 1(ClBQ)0.31 complex exhibited an electrical conductivity of ∼2.08 × 10–5 S cm–1, a 10,000-fold enhancement compared to the pristine host. This is attributed to efficient CT observed in spectroscopic analyses and is consistent with the computed small HOMO–LUMO gap (2.92 eV) in a model of the host–guest system. 1(MN)0.39 and 1(BTD)0.5 demonstrated moderate conductivities explained by the interplay of electronic coupling, reorganization energy, and energy gap. Lower ratios of guest inclusion decreased the electrical conductivity by 10-fold in 1(ClBQ)0.18, while 1(MN)0.25 and 1(BTD)0.41 were nonconductive (10–9 S cm–1). This work highlights the potential of metal-free, porous organic systems as tunable semiconductors, offering a pathway to innovative applications in organic electronics. 

Photochromic radionuclide-based “claw machines” characterizedviaa combination of isothermal titration calorimetry and spectroscopic analysis unlock a pathway for on demand radionuclide capture and release. 

Manipulations of nanocrystal (NC) surfaces have propelled the applications of colloidal NCs across various fields such as bioimaging, catalysis, electronics, and sensing applications. In this Feature Article, we discuss the surface chemistry of colloidal NCs, with an emphasis on semiconductor quantum dots, and the binding motifs for various ligands that coordinate NC surfaces. We present isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) as a viable technique for studying the thermodynamics of the ligand association and exchange at NC surfaces by discussing its principles of operation and highlighting results obtained to date. We give an in-depth description of various thermodynamic models that can be used to interpret NC–ligand interactions as measured not only by ITC, but also by NMR, fluorescence quenching, and fluorescence anisotropy techniques. Understanding the complexity of NC surface–ligand interactions can provide a wide range of avenues to tune their properties for desired applications. 

Herein, we report structural, computational, and conductivity studies on urea-directed self-assembled iodinated triphenylamine (TPA) derivatives. Despite numerous reports of conductive TPAs, the challenges of correlating their solid-state assembly with charge transport properties hinder the efficient design of new materials. In this work, we compare the assembled structures of a methylene urea bridged dimer of di-iodo TPA (1) and the corresponding methylene urea di-iodo TPA monomer (2) with a di-iodo mono aldehyde (3) control. These modifications lead to needle shaped crystals for 1 and 2 that are organized by urea hydrogen bonding, π⋯π stacking, I⋯I, and I⋯π interactions as determined by SC-XRD, Hirshfeld surface analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The long needle shaped crystals were robust enough to measure the conductivity by two contact probe methods with 2 exhibiting higher conductivity values (∼6 × 10 −7 S cm −1 ) compared to 1 (1.6 × 10 −8 S cm −1 ). Upon UV-irradiation, 1 formed low quantities of persistent radicals with the simple methylurea 2 displaying less radical formation. The electronic properties of 1 were further investigated using valence band XPS, which revealed a significant shift in the valence band upon UV irradiation (0.5–1.9 eV), indicating the potential of these materials as dopant free p-type hole transporters. The electronic structure calculations suggest that the close packing of TPA promotes their electronic coupling and allows effective charge carrier transport. Our results show that ionic additives significantly improve the conductivity up to ∼2.0 × 10 −6 S cm −1 in thin films, enabling their implementation in functional devices such as perovskite or solid-state dye sensitized solar cells.