Modification of fullerene with anchors

Abstract

Organic electronics is an emerging field of science which finds application in organic light emitting diode (OLED), organic photovoltaics (OPV), organic transistors, and sensors etc. Research is focused to improve the efficiency of these devices comparable to that of silicon counterpart. Discovery of fullerene has given much greater enhancement to this direction. One of the unique properties of fullerene is that it can reversibly accept up to six electrons. Moreover, fullerene is soluble in common organic solvents, which makes it useful for device fabrication. However, in order to construct functional devices, supramolecular arrangement of molecules on surface is required. Modification of fullerene with anchor ensures patterning of the surface. Chemistry of fullerenes is described in the Literature Review section citing important reactions such as reduction, nucleophilic substitution and cycloaddition. Methods for synthesis of fullerenes and purifications, details about structure are also described. In addition to that, techniques for supramolecular arrangement of fullerenes on the surface are also given a prominent space under the same section. Aim of the present work was to synthesize fullerenes with different anchoring groups that can bind on the surfaces covalently and characterize them with spectroscopic methods. We have successfully prepared fullerenes with different anchors such as Mono- and Bis- carboxy, thioacetate, and thiol functional group. The experimental work, interpretation of the spectroscopic data to identify the right compound are presented under Results and Discussion part.