Donor-Acceptor Molecule Based High-Performance Photothermal Organic Material for Efficient Water Purification and Electricity Generation

In this contribution, a unique donor-acceptor conjugated organic-small-molecule photothermal material, namely GDPA-QCN, is presented. Bulky dendritic triphenylamine (GDPA) was grafted onto quinoxaline-6,7-dicarbonitrile (QCN) with a phenyl ring as a bridge to form an umbrella architecture. Benefited from the particular molecular structure, in solid state, GDPA-QCN molecules adopted a loose packing mode due to the steric effect of umbrella head dendritic triphenyl-amine and flexible molecular structure feature, which allows efficient intramolecular motions and consequently elevates energy dissipation by taking the pathway of thermal deactivation within broad absorption range. The GDPA-QCN solid has high solar-thermal conversion efficiency with an absorption range from 300 to 1100 nm, which can promote superior water purification and electricity generation performance.

Automated summary

The GDPA-QCN material presented in this contribution features a unique molecular structure that allows for efficient energy dissipation and a broad absorption range, leading to superior performance in solar-thermal conversion for water purification and electricity generation.