Photoinduced charge-transfer dynamics simulations in noncovalently bonded molecular aggregates

Abstract

The rational design of new materials as prototype systems for organic solar cells remains challenging. Perylene diimide has emerged as a promising material to replace fullerene derivatives because of its synthetic flexibility, leading to the manipulation of their optical properties. As a result of their fused aromatic core that favors π–π stacking interactions, the aggregation of these molecules can reach highly ordered nanostructures as one-dimensional nanofibers, with a fast photoinduced charge transfer mechanism. In this article, we present an atomistic description of the photoexcited exciton dynamics in noncovalently bonded perylene diimides by time integration of the electron density in the presence of external time varying electric fields. We show that our approach is able to capture and explain the physics that underlies the charge transport mechanism through perylene diimide aggregates.