Deuteration of Perylene Enhances Photochemical Upconversion Efficiency

Andrew Danos; Rowan W MacQueen; Yuen Yap Cheng; Miroslav Dvořák; Tamim A Darwish; Dane R McCamey; Timothy W Schmidt

doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b01271

Deuteration of Perylene Enhances Photochemical Upconversion Efficiency

J Phys Chem Lett. 2015 Aug 6;6(15):3061-6. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b01271. Epub 2015 Jul 22.

Authors

Andrew Danos¹, Rowan W MacQueen¹, Yuen Yap Cheng¹, Miroslav Dvořák^{2

3}, Tamim A Darwish⁴, Dane R McCamey⁵, Timothy W Schmidt¹

Affiliations

¹ †School of Chemistry, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.
² ‡Department of Physical Electronics, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, V Holesovickach 2, 180 00 Prague, Czech Republic.
³ ⊥School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
⁴ §National Deuteration Facility, Bragg Institute, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Locked Bag 2001, Kirrawee DC, New South Wales 2232, Australia.
⁵ ∥School of Physics, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.

PMID: 26267203
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b01271

Abstract

Photochemical upconversion via triplet-triplet annihilation is a promising technology for improving the efficiency of photovoltaic devices. Previous studies have shown that the efficiency of upconversion depends largely on two rate constants intrinsic to the emitting species. Here, we report that one of these rate constants can be altered by deuteration, leading to enhanced upconversion efficiency. For perylene, deuteration decreases the first order decay rate constant by 16 ± 9% at 298 K, which increases the linear upconversion response by 45 ± 21% in the low excitation regime.

Keywords: Triplet−triplet annihilation.