A novel organic n-type material: fluorinated perylene diimide

In order to increase the dissociation efficiency of electron-hole pairs (excitons) in organic solar cells, and to enhance the solubility of organic materials for easy fabrication, a novel perylene diimide with multiple strongly electron-withdrawing F atoms, N,N'-diperfluorophenyl-3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic diimide (DFPP), was designed and synthesized. The solubility of DFPP was improved greatly compared to its non-fluorinated parent, N,N'-diphenyl-3,4,9,10-peryienetetracarboxylic diimide (DPP), which might relate to the spatial arrangement of the phenyl versus the pentafluorophenyl groups. The field-effect-transistor (FET) with spin-coated DFPP film as transport layer was prepared, and its electron mobility was measured as 1.29 x 10(-1) cm(2) V-1 s(-1), 3.4 times higher than that from vacuum-deposited DPP film, demonstrating its potential applications in organic optoelectronic devices. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.