Air-stable photoconductive films formed from perylene bisimide gelators

Abstract

We show that amino acid-PBIs can form one-dimensional structures at high pH and then gels at low pH. Both the dried solutions and dried gels are photoconductive. Interestingly, photoconductivity of these materials requires that the incident light has a wavelength shorter than 400 nm, in stark contrast with the absorption maxima of the PBIs. The photoconductivity correlates with the formation of the perylene radical anion, which is unusually highly stable in air for many hours.