Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 December 2015
For efficient charge separation and charge transport in optoelectronic materials,small internal reorganization energies are desired. While many p-type organicsemiconductors have been reported with low internal reorganization energies, fewn-type materials with low reorganization energy are known. Metal phthalocyanineshave long received extensive research attention in the field of organic deviceelectronics due to their highly tunable electronic properties throughmodification of the molecular periphery. In this study, density functionaltheory (DFT) calculations are performed on a series of zinc-phthalocyanines(ZnPc) with various degrees of peripheral per-fluoroalkyl(-C3F7) modification. Introduction of the highly electronwithdrawing groups on the periphery leads to a lowering in the energy of themolecular frontier orbitals as well as an increase in the electron affinity.Additionally, all molecules studies are found to be most stable in their anionicform, demonstrating their potential as n-type materials. However, the calculatedinternal reorganization energy slightly increases as a function of peripheralmodification. By varying the degree of modification we develop a strategy forobtaining an optimal balance between low reorganization energy and high electronaffinity for the development of novel n-type optoelectronic materials.