Self-Assembled Porphyrinic Materials on Surfaces

Published

October 16, 2008

Author(s)

J Batteas

Abstract

For the foreseeable future, the vast majority of commercial electronics, photonics, and other devices will be in the solid state and incorporated onto or into a substrate though there are substantial efforts to change this paradigm (1). To date, most of these surface structures are manufactured by a top down approach wherein various layers of a material are selectively added or removed. The formation of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), for example, generally requires the careful deposition of several to several tens of layers of various organic and inorganic materials, and the thickness of each must be precisely controlled. An alternative bottom up approach exploits knowledge of intermolecular interactions to self-assemble molecules into supramolecular structures, self-organize molecules into monolayers, or electrostatically deposit films layer-by-layer. The degree of predictable and long-range molecular order decreases from self-assembly to self-organization to layer-by-layer. Notable applications of the second mode of bottom up assembly are the deposition of thin films of liquid crystals and mesogens for various display applications. Because exact alignment of molecules is not usually possible with the layer-by-layer approach, applications of this method to date have focused on modification of large surface areas. This chapter focuses on the methods and applications of self-assembled and self organized porphyrinic materials on surfaces; however, many of the themes and methods discussed are applicable to a variety of other chromophores and other organic molecules. Porphyrinoids are tetrapyrrolic macrocycles that are excellent molecules for various commercial applications because of their remarkable stability considering their rich photonic properties.

Citation

Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Pub Type

Encyclopedias

Keywords

Molecular Electronics, Photonics, Porphyrin, self-assembly, self-organization, Supremolecular, surface

Citation

Batteas, J. (2008), Self-Assembled Porphyrinic Materials on Surfaces, Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (Accessed July 27, 2024)