A novel organic n-type material: fluorinated perylene diimide

In order to increase the dissociation efficiency of electron–hole pairs (excitons) in organic solar cells, and to enhance the solubility of organic materials for easy fabrication, a novel perylene diimide with multiple strongly electron-withdrawing F atoms, N,N′-diperfluorophenyl-3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic diimide (DFPP), was designed and synthesized. The solubility of DFPP was improved greatly compared to its non-fluorinated parent, N,N′-diphenyl-3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic diimide (DPP), which might relate to the spatial arrangement of the phenyl versus the pentafluorophenyl groups. The field-effect-transistor (FET) with spin-coated DFPP film as transport layer was prepared, and its electron mobility was measured as 1.29×10−5 cm2 V−1 s−1, 3.4 times higher than that from vacuum-deposited DPP film, demonstrating its potential applications in organic optoelectronic devices.