Elucidating Structural Evolution of Perylene Diimide Aggregates Using Vibrational Spectroscopy and Molecular Dynamics Simulations

作者：Mattson Max A; Green Thomas D; Lake Peter T; McCullagh Martin; Krummel Amber T

来源：Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2018, 122(18): 4891-4900.

DOI：10.1021/acs.jpcb.8b02355

Perylene diimides (PDIs) are a family of molecules that have potential applications to organic photovoltaics. These systems typically aggregate cofacially due to pi-stacking interactions between the aromatic perylene cores. In this study, the structure and characteristics of aggregated N,N'-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)-3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic diimide (common name lumogen orange), a perylene diimide (PDI) with sterically bulky imide functional groups, were investigated using both experimental vibrational spectroscopy and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Samples of lumogen orange dispersed in chloroform exhibited complex aggregation behavior, as evidenced by the evolution of the FTIR spectrum over a period of several hours. While for many PDI systems with less bulky imide functional groups aggregation is dominated by pi-stacking interactions between perylene cores, MD simulations of lumogen orange dimers indicated a second, more energetically favorable aggregate structure mediated by "edge-to-edge" interactions between PDI units. Two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy together with orientational statistics obtained from MD simulations were employed to identify and rationalize aggregation-induced coupling between vibrational modes.

• 出版日期2018-5-10