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Paper
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 2064 - 2070, DOI: 10.1039/b807391k
Self-assembly of discotic molecules into mesoscopic crystals by solvent-vapour annealing
Giovanna De Luca, Andrea Liscio, Fabian Nolde, Luigi Monsù Scolaro, Vincenzo Palermo, Klaus Müllen and Paolo Samorì
Solvent vapour annealing (SVA) is used to control the reorganization of ultrathin films of three different polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons self-assembled on solid surfaces. To this end, two perylene-bis(dicarboximide) (PDI) derivatives exposing branched side alkyl chains with different length and a dodecyl substituted hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene (HBC) have been used, in view of their n- and p-type semiconducting nature. For all the three molecules, nanoscopic crystals grown from solution by spin-coating and drop-casting undergo reorganization into sub-millimetric fibers, domes and needles, proving the general applicability of the SVA method. Moreover, such an approach exhibits a mass transport of the molecules on surfaces over hundreds of microns. The self-healing of the films through SVA treatment leads to a decrease of the structural defects and an increase in the lateral size of the self-assembled domains, ultimately providing an improved 3D conjugation. Therefore the SVA can be considered an important strategy with potential to enhance the performance of macroscopic organic electronic devices.
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