Enhancing the coplanarity of the donor moiety in a donor-acceptor molecule to improve the efficiency of switching phenomenon for flash memory devices

Two conjugated small molecules were synthesized by Heck coupling reaction, wherein 1,8-naphthalimide acted as an electron acceptor, while either carbazole or triphenylamine, which contributed the different coplanarity, acted as electron donors, respectively. The devices based on both materials show non-volatile flash memory characteristics, and the effect of molecular coplanarity of the donor groups on the device performance was precisely studied. The results indicated that the reproducibility of the switching phenomenon for the memory device based on the carbazole containing naphthalimide derivative was much better than that based on the triphenylamino based naphthalimide due to the rigid carbazole moiety which improved the surface morphology as revealed by atomic force microscopy measurement. Therefore, the significance of the coplanarity of the donor moiety on improving reproducibility of switching phenomenon for memory device applications was revealed. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.