Theoretical Studies of Singlet Fission: Searching for Materials and Exploring Mechanisms

In this Review article, a survey is given for theoretical studies in the subject of singlet fission. Singlet fission converts one singlet exciton to two triplet excitons. With the doubled number of excitons and the longer lifetime of the triplets, singlet fission provides an avenue to improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency in organic photovoltaic devices. It has been a subject of intense research in the past decade. Theoretical studies play an essential role in understanding singlet fission. This article presents a Review of theoretical studies in singlet fission since 2006, the year when the research interest in this subject was reignited. Both electronic structure and dynamics studies are covered. Electronic structure studies provide guidelines for designing singlet fission chromophores and insights into the couplings between single‐ and multi‐excitonic states. The latter provides fundamental knowledge for engineering interchromophore conformations to enhance the fission efficiency. Dynamics studies reveal the importance of vibronic couplings in singlet fission

Design of singlet fission chromophores with cyclic (alkyl)(amino) carbene building blocks

We use MRSF-TDDFT and NEVPT2 methods to design singlet fission chromophores with the building blocks of cyclic (alkyl)(amino)carbenes (CAACs). CAAC dimers with C2, C4, and p-phenylene spacers are considered. The substitutions with trifluoromethyls and fluorine atoms at the α C position are investigated. The electronegative substituents enhance the π accepting capability of the α C, while maintaining it as a quaternary C atom. The phenylene-connected dimers with the two substitutions are identified as promising candidates for singlet fission chromophores. The cylindrically symmetric C2 and C4 spacers allow for substantial structural reorganizations in the S0-to-S1 and S0-to-T1 excitations. Although the two substituted dimers with the C4 spacer satisfy (or very close to satisfy) the primary thermodynamics criterion for singlet fission, the significant structural reorganizations result in high barriers so that the fission is kinetically unfavorable

General formalism of vibronic Hamiltonians for tetrahedral and octahedral systems: Problems that involve A-type states and a-type vibrations

In this work, we derive expansion formulas up to arbitrary order in vibrational coordinates for the tetrahedral and octahedral vibronic Hamiltonians that involve A-type states and a-type vibrations. The root-branch approach and modularized approach enable us to derive vibronic Hamiltonians including up to two vibrational modes for 5 problems in T symmetry and 92 problems in Td symmetry within one paper. These formulas can be easily adapted to problems of Th,O, and Oh symmetries. Finishing this work, we have derived general vibronic Hamiltonians for all unimodal and bimodal Jahn-Teller and pseudo-Jahn-Teller problems of cubic group systems. These bimodal formulas can be extended to cover problems that involve more than two modes

Controlling Thermal Stability and Volatility of Organogold(I) Compounds for Vapor Deposition with Complementary Ligand Design

We compare and contrast the volatility and thermal stability of a family of twelve organometallic gold(I) compounds using a combination of X-ray crystallography, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and density functional theory (DFT) techniques. Pentafluorophenyl is used as a new ligand for vapor deposition which produces rather low volatility, but very thermally stable compounds when combined with PMe3 and N,N\u27-di-tert-butylimidazolidin-2-ylidene. We introduce a precursor figure of merit that can be used to rank precursor usefulness. Using DFT, we find a linear correlation between Au-L bond strength and thermal stability, which demonstrates the power of computational techniques to predict successful synthetic targets for future precursor design studies

Controlling the Thermal Stability and Volatility of Organogold(I) Compounds for Vapor Deposition with Complementary Ligand Design

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of gold is being studied by multiple research groups, but to date no process using non-energetic co-reactants has been demonstrated. In order to access milder co-reactants, precursors with higher thermal stability are required. We set out to uncover how structure and bonding affect the stability and volatility of a family of twelve organogold(I) compounds using a combination of techniques: X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and density functional theory (DFT). Small, unsubstituted phosphonium ylide ligands bind more strongly to Au(I) than their silyl-substituted analogues, but the u