Electronic structure tunability of carbon-based 1D-polymers combining cross-conjugation and nitrogen doping

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Quasi-one-dimensional polymer structures with extended π-electron systems stand out due to their remarkable application in light-emitting diodes and devices. Upon smart choice of their building units, such carbon-based organic nanoarchitectures provide excellent optoelectronic properties by tuning their dimensionality, atomic structure or intrinsic doping. Here, we generate and study three canonical cross-conjugated quasi one-dimensional chains with controlled nitrogen intrinsic doping, which is selectively introduced into their poly-phenylene backbones. By means of scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy we corroborate that the cross-conjugation that break the chain linearity is exclusively responsible of the electronic confinement in the straight segments. Moreover, we demonstrate that the LUMO state exhibits similar spatial distribution for the cross-conjugated polymers independently of the pyridine content of the initial precursor. Despite this coincidence, the semiconducting character and other relevant electronic properties of the polymers are found to depend both on the chain morphology and on the precise position and number of doping nitrogen atoms synthetically introduced into the molecular precursors. We compare these results to related previous studies, which allows us to unambiguously validate the opto-electronic tunability upon the choice of the polymers' building units.

Source: Nanoscale

DOI: 10.1039/d5nr01235j

Authors: Adriana E. Candia, Manuel Vilas-Varela, Myriam H. Aguirre, Celia Rogero, David Serrate, Diego Peña, Jorge Lobo-Checa

Institutions: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, University of the Basque Country, Universidad de Zaragoza, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Material Physics Center, Instituto de Física del Litoral, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Centro Singular de Investigación en Química Biológica y Materiales Moleculares, Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón

Language: English

Topic: Surface Chemistry and Catalysis

Subfield: Biomedical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, European Commission, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Eusko Jaurlaritza, Universidad de Zaragoza, Xunta de Galicia, Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica, European Regional Development Fund, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Departamento de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Gobierno de Aragón, European Social Fund, H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, NextGenerationEU

OpenAlex ID: W4410784336