Light-Harvesting Discotic Liquid Crystalline Porphyrins and Metal Complexes

KSU.285

Abstract: Light-harvesting discotic liquid crystalline porphyrins and discotic crystalline porphyrin metal complexes, method for preparation, and device fabrication are disclosed.  The discotic liquid crystalline porphyrins can be aligned into an ordered nanostructure, in which the columns formed by intermolecular stack are spontaneously perpendicular on the surface, i.e., homeotropic alignment.  The ordered nanostructure, which is stable within a very wide temperature range, can excellently enhance the exciton (electron-hole pair) dissociation and the charge carrier mobility, and thus can dramatically improve the light induced electric generation.  These compounds are capable of being used as high-efficiency photovoltaic materials, organic semiconducting materials, and organic light emitting materials.   This invention is an important extension of our previous patent.  The materials provide a broad temperature range discotic columnar phase capable of forming homeotropically/homogeneous aligned architecture.  Advantages include large domain single crystal organic semiconductor, high charge carrier mobility in directions along columns, and high energy conversion efficiency. 

Applications:

• In electricity generation
• Photovoltaic devices
• Light emitting devices
• Photosensors
• Electrographic receptors
• Large area circuits
• Transistors
• Memory arrays, etc.

Inventors: Dr. Quan Li et al