Funneling and Enhancing Upconversion Emission by Light-Harvesting Molecular Wires

J Phys Chem Lett. 2021 Oct 7;12(39):9525-9530. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c02717. Epub 2021 Sep 24.

Abstract

Triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA) upconversion has shown promising potentials in the augmentation of solar energy conversion. However, challenging issues exist in improving TTA upconversion efficiencies in solid-states, one of which is the back energy transfer from upconverted singlet annihilators to sensitizers, resulting in decreasing upconversion emission. Here we present a light-harvesting molecular wire consisting of dendrons with 9,10-diphenylanthracene derivatives (DPAEH) at the periphery and p-phenylene ethynylene oligomers (PPE) as the wire core. The peripheral DPAEH antenna funnels singlet excitonic energy to the wire on a 12 ps time scale. Incorporating the molecular wire into the TTA upconversion solid consisting of the DPAEH annihilator and the porphyrin sensitizer evidently improves the upconversion quantum yield from 1.5% to 2.7% upon 532 nm excitation by suppressing the back energy transfer from the singlet annihilator to the sensitizer. This finding offers a potential route to use a singlet energy light-harvesting architecture for enhancing TTA upconversion.

MeSH terms

  • Anthracenes / chemistry
  • Energy Transfer
  • Porphyrins / chemistry
  • Solar Energy*
  • Spectrometry, Fluorescence

Substances

  • Anthracenes
  • Porphyrins
  • 9,10-diphenylanthracene