Deuteration as a Means to Tune Crystallinity of Conducting Polymers
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
The effects of deuterium isotope substitution on conjugated polymer chain stacking of poly(3-hexylthiophene) is studied in this paper experimentally by X-ray diffraction (XRD) in combination with gel permeation chromatography and theoretically using density functional theory and quantum molecular dynamics. For four P3HT materials with different levels of deuteration (pristine, main-chain deuterated, side-chain deuterated, and fully deuterated), the XRD measurements show that main-chain thiophene deuteration significantly reduces crystallinity, regardless of the side-chain deuteration. The reduction of crystallinity due to the main-chain deuteration is a quantum nuclear effect resulting from a static zero-point vibrational energy combined with a dynamic correlation of the dipole fluctuations. The quantum molecular dynamics simulations confirm the interchain correlation of the proton–proton and deuteron–deuteron motions but not of the proton–deuteron motion. Thus and finally, isotopic purity is an important factor affecting stability and properties of conjugated polymer crystals, which should be considered in the design of electronic and spintronic devices.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); ORNL Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725; CHE-1565985; CHE-1048629
- OSTI ID:
- 1394393
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, Vol. 8, Issue 18; ISSN 1948-7185
- Publisher:
- American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
A fast scheme to calculate electronic couplings between P3HT polymer units using diabatic orbitals for charge transfer dynamics simulations
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journal | December 2018 |
Theoretical assessment of the nuclear quantum effects on polymer crystallinity via perturbation theory and dynamics
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journal | September 2018 |
Isotope Effects on the Crystallization Kinetics of Selectively Deuterated Poly(ε‐Caprolactone)
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journal | April 2019 |
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