Operative mechanism of hole-assisted negative charge motion in ground states of radical-anion molecular wires

Charge transfer/transport in molecular wires over varying distances is a subject of great interest. The feasible transport mechanisms have been generally accounted for on the basis of tunneling or superexchange charge transfer operating over small distances which progressively gives way to hopping t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Franco, Carlos, Mayorga Burrezo, Paula, Lloveras, Vega, Caballero, Ruben, Alcón Rovira, Isaac, Bromley, Stefan Thomas, Mas Torrent, Marta, Langa, Fernando, López Navarrete, Juan T., Rovira i Angulo, Concepció, Casado, Juan, Veciana, Jaume
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/124977
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/124977
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Transferència de càrrega
Transport d'electrons
Cinètica química
Espectroscòpia Raman
Química quàntica
Charge transfer
Electron transport
Chemical kinetics
Raman spectroscopy
Quantum chemistry
Descripción
Sumario:Charge transfer/transport in molecular wires over varying distances is a subject of great interest. The feasible transport mechanisms have been generally accounted for on the basis of tunneling or superexchange charge transfer operating over small distances which progressively gives way to hopping transport over larger distances. The underlying molecular sequential steps that likely take place during hopping and the operative mechanism occurring at intermediate distances have received much less attention given the difficulty in assessing detailed molecular-level information. We describe here the operating mechanisms for unimolecular electron transfer/transport in the ground state of radical-anion mixed-valence derivatives occurring between their terminal perchlorotriphenylmethyl/ide groups through thiophene-vinylene oligomers that act as conjugated wires of increasing length up to 53 angstrom, The unique finding here is that the net transport of the electron in the larger molecular wires is initiated by an electron hole dissociation intermediated by hole delocalization (conformationally assisted and thermally dependent) forming transient mobile polaronic states in the bridge that terminate by an electron hole recombination at the other wire extreme. On the contrary, for the shorter radical-anions our results suggest that a flickering resonance mechanism which is intermediate between hopping and superexchange is the operative one. We support these mechanistic interpretations by applying the pertinent biased kinetic models of the charge/spin exchange rates determined by electron paramagnetic resonance and by molecular structural level information obtained from UV-vis and Raman spectroscopies and by quantum chemical modeling.