Singlet exciton fission in a modified acene with improved stability and high photoluminescence yield.


Change log
Authors
Weiss, Leah R 
Müller, Matthias 
Dowland, Simon 
Abstract

We report a fully efficient singlet exciton fission material with high ambient chemical stability. 10,21-Bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)tetrabenzo[a,c,l,n]pentacene (TTBP) combines an acene core with triphenylene wings that protect the formal pentacene from chemical degradation. The electronic energy levels position singlet exciton fission to be endothermic, similar to tetracene despite the triphenylenes. TTBP exhibits rapid early time singlet fission with quantitative yield of triplet pairs within 100 ps followed by thermally activated separation to free triplet excitons over 65 ns. TTBP exhibits high photoluminescence quantum efficiency, close to 100% when dilute and 20% for solid films, arising from triplet-triplet annihilation. In using such a system for exciton multiplication in a solar cell, maximum thermodynamic performance requires radiative decay of the triplet population, observed here as emission from the singlet formed by recombination of triplet pairs. Combining chemical stabilisation with efficient endothermic fission provides a promising avenue towards singlet fission materials for use in photovoltaics.

Description
Keywords
5108 Quantum Physics, 34 Chemical Sciences, 51 Physical Sciences
Journal Title
Nat Commun
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
2041-1723
2041-1723
Volume Title
12
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Rights
All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/M005143/1)
EPSRC (1803591)
Relationships
Is supplemented by: