Theoretical and experimental investigations on 5,12-di(methyl)-quinacri-din-ylidene)-7,14-di(rhodanineimine) for optoelectronic applications

In searching for novel organic semiconductors, 5,12-di(methyl)-quinacridin-ylidene)-7,14-di(rhodanineimine) (DQAR) is designed and chemically synthesized by using condensation reaction. The molecular structure of DQAR is supported with spectral measurements. Electronic and geometrical properties of DQAR are investigated be means of combined computational and experimental analyses. Density function theory (DFT/B3LYP) utilizing 6-311G(d,p) basis set are used to optimize DQAR molecular structure and its related geometrical parameters. The intermolecular interactions are calculated using reduced density gradient (RDG) planes. The highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (HOMO and LUMO) of DQAR are experimentally estimated by using the optical absorbance and cyclic voltammetry techniques. DQAR is used as a third component in the active layer of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. The BHJ solar cells based on P3HT:DQAR:PC61BM (P3HT = poly(3hexylthiophene and PC61BM = [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester) active layers are found to be to be better that those based on only P3HT:PC61BM mainly due to the contribution of DQAR to the photocurrent. The obtained results are analyzed in terms of the computational and experimental data. Our initial results indicate that DQAR can be used in BHJ solar cells fabrications.