Understanding the interplay between the kinetics and energetics of photophysical processes in perovskite-chromophore hybrid systems is crucial for realizing their potential in optoelectronics, photocatalysis, and light-harvesting applications. By combining steady-state optical characterizations and transient absorption spectroscopy, we have investigated the mechanism of interfacial charge transfer (CT) between colloidal CsPbBr₃ nanoplatelets (NPLs) and surface-anchored perylene derivatives and have explored the possibility of controlling the CT rate by tuning the driving force. The CT driving force was tuned systematically by attaching acceptors with different electron affinities and by varying the bandgap of NPLs via thickness-controlled quantum confinement. Our data show that the charge-separated state is formed by selectively exciting either the electron donors or acceptors in the same system. Upon exciting attached acceptors, hole transfer from perylene derivatives to CsPbBr₃ NPLs takes place on a picosecond time scale, showing an energetic behavior in line with the Marcus normal regime. Interestingly, such energetic behavior is absent upon exciting the electron donor, suggesting that the dominant CT mechanism is energy transfer followed by ultrafast hole transfer. Our findings not only elucidate the photophysics of perovskite-molecule systems but also provide guidelines for tailoring such hybrid systems for specific applications.

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In this work we demonstrate a novel approach to achieve efficient charge separation in dimensionally and dielectrically confined two-dimensional perovskite materials. Two-dimensional perovskites generally exhibit large exciton binding energies that limit their application in optoelectronic devices that require charge separation such as solar cells, photo-detectors and in photo-catalysis. Here, we show that by incorporating a strongly electron accepting moiety, perylene diimide organic chromophores, on the surface of the two-dimensional perovskite nanoplatelets it is possible to achieve efficient formation of mobile free charge carriers. These free charge carriers are generated with ten times higher yield and lifetimes of tens of microseconds, which is two orders of magnitude longer than without the peryline diimide acceptor. This opens a novel synergistic approach, where the inorganic perovskite layers are combined with functional organic chromophores in the same material to tune the properties for specific applications.

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Two light-harvesting antenna molecules were obtained by positioning naphthalene monoimide energy donors at the imide position, instead of the bay positions, of perylene imide energy acceptors. Such rational design resulted in a complete suppression of parasitic intramolecular charge transfer without compromising the desired ultrafast rates of excitation energy transfer.

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Developing multifunctional polymeric binders is key to the design of energy storage technologies with value-added features. We report that a multigram-scale synthesis of perylene diimide polymer (PPDI), from a single batch via polymer analogous reaction route, yields high molecular weight polymers with suitable thermal stability and minimized solubility in electrolytes, potentially leading to improved binding affinity toward electrode particles. Further, it develops strategies for designing copolymers with virtually any desired composition via a subsequent grafting, leading to purpose-built binders. PPDI dye as both binder and electroactive additive in lithium half-cells using lithium iron phosphate exhibits good electrochemical performance.

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Perylene diimides (PDIs) are attractive chromophores that exhibit singlet exciton fission (SF) and have several advantages over traditional SF molecules such as tetracene and pentacene; however, their photophysical properties relating to SF have received only limited attention. In this study, we explore how introduction of bulky bromine atoms in the so-called bay-area PDIs, resulting in a nonplanar structure, affects the solid-state packing and efficiency of singlet fission. We found that changes in the molecular packing have a strong effect on the temperature dependent photoluminescence, expressed as an activation energy. These effects are explained in terms of excimer formation for PDIs without bay-area substitution, which competes with singlet fission. Introduction of bromine atoms in the bay-positions strongly disrupts the solid-state packing leading to strongly reduced excitonic interactions. Surprisingly, these relatively amorphous materials with weak electronic coupling exhibit stronger formation of triplet excited states by SF because the competing excimer formation is suppressed here.

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We report herein a versatile and user-friendly synthetic methodology based on sequential functionalization that enables the synthesis of previously unknown perylene bisimide (PBI) dyes with up to five different substituents attached to the perylene core (e.g., compound 15). The key to the success of our strategy is a highly efficient regiospecific 7-mono- and 7,12-di-phenoxy bay substitution at the "imide-activated" 7- and 12-bay positions of 1,6,7,12-tetrachloroperylene monoimide diester 1. The facile subsequent conversion of the diester groups into an imide group resulted in novel PBIs (e.g., compound 14) with two phenoxy substituents specifically at the 7- and 12-bay positions. This conversion led to the activation of C-1 and C-6 bay positions, and thereafter, the remaining two chlorine atoms were substituted to obtain tetraphenoxy-PBI (compound 15) that has two different imide and three different bay substituents. The methodology provides excellent control over the functionalization pattern, which enables the synthesis of various regioisomeric pairs bearing the same bay substituents. Another important feature of this strategy is the high sensitivity of HOMO-LUMO energies and photoinduced charge transfer toward sequential functionalization. As a result, systematic fluorescence on-off switching has been demonstrated upon subsequent substitution with the electron-donating 4-methoxyphenoxy substituent.

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The excited-state dynamics of perylene-based bichromophoric light harvesting antenna systems has been tailored by systematic modification of the molecular structure and by using solvents of increasing polarity in the series toluene, chloroform, and benzonitrile. The antenna systems consist of blue light absorbing naphthalene monoimide (NMI) energy donors (D1, D2, and D3) and the perylene derived green light absorbing energy acceptor moieties, 1,7-perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic tetrabutylester (A1), 1,7-perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic monoimide dibutylester (A2), and 1,7-perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic bisimide (A3). The design of these antenna systems is such that all exhibit ultrafast excitation energy transfer (EET) from the excited donor to the acceptor, due to the effective matching of optical properties of the constituent chromophores. At the same time, electron transfer from the donor to the excited acceptor unit has been limited by the use of a rigid and nonconjugated phenoxy bridge to link the donor and acceptor components. The antenna molecules D1A1, D1A2, and D1A3, which bear the least electron-rich energy donor, isopentylthio-substituted NMI D1, exhibited ultrafast EET (ω_EET ∼ 1 ps) but no charge transfer and, resultantly, emitted a strong yellow-orange acceptor fluorescence upon excitation of the donor. The other antenna molecules D2A2, D2A3, and D3A3, which bear electron-rich energy donors, the amino-substituted NMIs D2 and D3, exhibited ultrafast energy transfer that was followed by a slower (ca. 20-2000 ps) electron transfer from the donor to the excited acceptor. This charge transfer quenched the acceptor fluorescence to an extent determined by molecular structure and solvent polarity. These antenna systems mimic the primary events occurring in the natural photosynthesis, i.e., energy capture, efficient energy funneling toward the central chromophore, and finally charge separation, and are suitable building blocks for achieving artificial photosynthesis, because of their robustness and favorable and tunable photophysical properties.

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Perylene diimides are conjugated chromophores that are of considerable interest owing to their ability to transform a singlet excited state into two triplets by singlet fission. Although singlet fission has previously been reported for certain perylene diimide derivatives, there is some uncertainty about the rates and yield of the process in these materials. In this report, ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy is used to demonstrate that singlet fission in perylene diimides can occur on a sub-picosecond timescale with quantum yields approaching the theoretical limit of 200 %.

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The molecular geometry and supramolecular packing of two bichromophoric prototypic light harvesting compounds D1A2 and D2A2, consisting of two naphthylimide energy donors that were attached to the 1,7 bay positions of a perylene monoimide diester energy acceptor, have been determined by a hybrid approach using magic angle spinning NMR spectroscopy and electron nano-crystallography (ENC), followed by modelling. NMR shift constraints, combined with the P (Formula presented.) space group obtained from ENC, were used to generate a centrosymmetric dimer of truncated perylene fragments. This racemic packing motif is used in a biased molecular replacement approach to generate a partial 3D electrostatic scattering potential map. Resolving the structure of the bay substituents is guided by the inversion symmetry, and the distance constraints obtained from heteronuclear correlation spectra. The antenna molecules form a pseudocrystalline lattice of antiparallel centrosymmetric dimers with pockets of partially disordered bay substituents. The two molecules in a unit cell form a butterfly-type arrangement. The hybrid methodology that has been developed is robust and widely applicable for critical structural underpinning of self-assembling structures of large organic molecules.

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We report here the synthesis and photophysical study of a series of electron donor–acceptor molecules, in which electron-donating 4-methoxyphenoxy groups are attached to the 1,7-bay positions of four different perylene tetracarboxylic acid derivatives, namely, perylene tetraesters 1, perylene monoimide diesters 2, perylene bisimides 3, and perylene monobenzimidazole monoimides 4. These perylene derivatives are used because of their increasing order of electron-accepting capability upon moving from 1 to 4. Two additional donor–acceptor molecules are synthesized by linking electron-donating 4-methoxyphenyl groups to the imide position of perylene monoimide diester 2 and perylene bisimide 3. The motivation for this study is to achieve a good control over the photoinduced charge-transfer (CT) process in perylene-based systems by altering the position of electron donors and tuning the electron deficiency of perylene core. A comprehensive study of the photophysical properties of these molecules has shown a highly systematic trend in the magnitude of CT as a function of increased electron deficiency of the perylene core and solvent polarity. Importantly, just by changing the attachment of electron-donating group from “bay” to “imide” position, we are able to block the CT process. This implies that the positioning of the electron donor at the perylene core strongly influences the kinetics of the photoinduced CT process. In these compounds, the CT process is characterized by the quenching of fluorescence and singlet excited-state lifetimes as compared to model compounds bearing non-electron-donating 4-tert-butylphenoxy groups. Transient absorption spectroscopy did not reveal spectra of CT states. This most likely implies that the CT state is not accumulated, because of the faster charge recombination.@en

We report the synthesis and excited-state dynamics of a series of five bichromophoric light-harvesting antenna systems, which are capable of efficient harvesting of solar energy in the spectral range of 350–580 nm. These antenna systems have been synthesized in a modular fashion by the covalent attachment of blue light absorbing naphthalene monoimide energy donors (D1, D2, and D3) to green light absorbing perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid derived energy acceptors, 1,7-perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic tetrabutylester (A1), 1,7-perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic monoimide dibutylester (A2), and 1,7-perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic bisimide (A3). The energy donors have been linked at the 1,7-bay-positions of the perylene derivatives, thus leaving the peri positions free for further functionalization and device construction. A highly stable and rigid structure, with no electronic communication between the donor and acceptor components, has been realized via an all-aromatic non-conjugated phenoxy spacer between the constituent chromophores. The selection of donor naphthalene derivatives for attachment with perylene derivatives was based on the effective matching of their respective optical properties to achieve efficient excitation energy transfer (EET) by the Förster mechanism. A comprehensive study of the excited-state dynamics, in toluene, revealed quantitative and ultrafast (ca. 1 ps) intramolecular EET from donor naphthalene chromophores to the acceptor perylenes in all the studied systems. Electron transfer from the donor naphthalene chromophores to the acceptor perylenes has not been observed, not even for antenna systems in which this process is thermodynamically allowed. Due to the combination of an efficient and fast energy transfer along with broad absorption in the visible region, these antenna systems are promising materials for solar-to-electric and solar-to-fuel devices.@en

Nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions on 1,7-dibromoperylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic monoimide dibutylester, using phenol and pyrrolidine reagents, have been exploited to synthesize perylenes with four different substituents at the perylene core. The first substitution is always regiospecific at the imide-activated 7-position. A second substitution reaction does not always replace the bromine at C-1, but may replace a phenol substituent at the highly activated 7-position. Exploiting this reactivity pattern, a "mixed" 1,7-diphenoxy, 1,7-dipyrrolidinyl, and two 1-phenoxy-7-pyrrolidinyl derivatives have been synthesized.

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A family of novel unsymmetrical "peri"-substituted perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid derivatives (5-10), with 1,6,7,12-tetrachloro-substituents at the bay-positions, has been synthesized. Subsequently, their redox and optical properties have been explored with the intent of unveiling opto-electronic characteristics of these newly synthesized compounds. To synthesize these new compounds, pure 1,6,7,12-tetrachloroperylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic tetra-n-butylester (4) has been employed as the precursor and the structural modifications have been carried out exclusively at the "peri" positions in an efficient manner. The two synthons prepared in this work, 1,6,7,12-tetrachloroperylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic di-n-butylester monoanhydride (5) and 1,6,7,12-tetrachloroperylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic monoimide monoanhydride (8), are extremely valuable and versatile starting materials as they possess free anhydride functionality at the "peri" position in addition to the 1,6,7,12-tetrachloro-bay-substituents. Finally, the conventional methodology for the synthesis of 1,6,7,12-tetraphenoxy-bay-functionalized perylene bisimides and perylene bisbenzimidazoles has been modified to make it faster and more convenient.

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Perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic tetraester-based fluorescent PET probes with aniline receptors attached either at the peri- or the bay-positions have been synthesized. By attaching aniline receptors at the bay position, pH-sensitive “light-up” probes, with fluorescence quantum yields ΦF > 0.75 and fluorescent enhancements FE > 500 in ethanol, have been obtained. Graphical abstract: Fluorescent PET probes based on perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic tetraesters @en