Co-assembly of donor and acceptor towards organogels tuned by charge transfer interaction strength

Abstract

Co-assembly of n-type semiconductors NDI and PDI with p-type pyrene derivatives resulted in the formation of stable organogels, which was induced by the strong charge transfer (CT) interactions between acceptors and donors in chloroform. The dimension size of the aromatic core from the acceptors was found to have a significant impact on the organogels. The width of the fibers from CT gels with NDI is about twice that from gels with PDI. It was found that the acceptor NDI preferred an alternate stacking with donors, intercalated with each other via CT interactions. In contrast, the acceptor PDI preferred to stack among themselves within the assemblies and this arose from the stronger π–π interactions because they had larger aromatic cores than the acceptor NDI. The dimension size of the aromatic core has been proved to have a significant impact on the organogels. The substituent impact of the donors was also studied.