Materials (Sep 2021)

Synthesis and Thermal, Photophysical, Electrochemical Properties of 3,3-di[3-Arylcarbazol-9-ylmethyl]oxetane Derivatives

  • Mateusz Korzec,
  • Daiva Tavgeniene,
  • Nizy Sara Samuel,
  • Raminta Beresneviciute,
  • Gintare Krucaite,
  • Agnieszka Katarzyna Pająk,
  • Sonia Kotowicz,
  • Marharyta Vasylieva,
  • Paweł Gnida,
  • Jan Grzegorz Malecki,
  • Saulius Grigalevicius,
  • Ewa Schab-Balcerzak

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14195569
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 19
p. 5569

Abstract

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Novel oxetane-functionalized derivatives were synthesized to find the impact of carbazole substituents, such as 1-naphtyl, 9-ethylcarbazole and 4-(diphenylamino)phenyl, on their thermal, photophysical and electrochemical properties. Additionally, to obtain the optimized ground-state geometry and distribution of the frontier molecular orbital energy levels, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used. Thermal investigations showed that the obtained compounds are highly thermally stable up to 360 °C, as molecular glasses with glass transition temperatures in the range of 142–165 °C. UV–Vis and photoluminescence studies were performed in solvents of differing in polarity, in the solid state as a thin film on glass substrate, and in powders, and were supported by DFT calculations. They emitted radiation both in solution and in film with photoluminescence quantum yield from 4% to 87%. Cyclic voltammetry measurements revealed that the materials undergo an oxidation process. Next, the synthesized molecules were tested as hole transporting materials (HTM) in perovskite solar cells with the structure FTO/b-TiO2/m-TiO2/perovskite/HTM/Au, and photovoltaic parameters were compared with the reference device without the oxetane derivatives.

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