Qu’il s’agisse de s’éclairer, de se chauffer, de s’alimenter sainement, de se soigner, de se véhiculer, de s’informer ou encore de se distraire, l’énergie a toujours été au centre des préoccupations et sa conversion en électricité est désormais omniprésente. Le lourd constat environnemental à la suite de l’exploitation intensive de sources fossiles a mené à une indispensable transition vers les énergies renouvelables. Souvent intermittentes, il est nécessaire de les stocker, généralement grâce à des batteries. Parmi les différentes technologies, cette thèse traite des batteries lithium-ion pour le stockage de l’énergie solaire. En effet, cette thèse a pour but l’étude d’un dispositif « tout-en-un » capable de convertir l’énergie solaire et de la stocker. Pour se faire, un semi-conducteur organique photoactif de la famille des pérylènes diimides (PDI) a été emprunté au domaine des cellules solaires organiques et couplé à un matériau phare et durable des batteries lithium-ion : le LiFePO4 (LFP). Cette thèse se décompose en trois parties selon une méthodologie qui vise à la compréhension fondamentale de transferts électroniques photoinduits, en amont du développement d’un dispositif. Pour aboutir à une preuve de concept, une étude de l’extinction de fluorescence du PDI en présence de LFP a d’abord été menée, afin de vérifier l’injection d’électrons en provenance du matériau de batterie dans le semi-conducteur excité. Ce travail a été fait en solution puis à l’état solide, pour la mise au point d’une photoélectrode. Ces deux études ont permis de comprendre les pré-requis du matériau d’électrode positive de batterie pour qu’il soit photoxydé, puis des résultats de spectroscopie Raman ont démontré l’importance des interfaces dans la mise en contact du PDI et du LFP. Finalement, forts d’une première preuve expérimentale de photocharge au sein d’un dispositif « photobatterie », le PDI a été polymérisé et son implémentation dans une photoélectrode de batterie lithium-ion a pu être optimisée. Ses rôles multiples (photoactif, photooxydant, conducteur électronique et liant) ont permis de générer un photocourant sans que cela ne soit au détriment du fonctionnement de la batterie. / Converting energy to electricity is ubiquitous because it plays a vital role in daily life whether for lighting, heating, health, transport, information or entertainment. Societal energy demands are often met with fuel fossils that have had deleterious environmental effects. Transitioning to renewables can mitigate these adverse outcomes. Renewable energy is often intermittent, requiring it to be stored for use during periods when the energy is unavailable. Batteries have become viable means to this end. Among the different technologies, this manuscript examines lithium-ion batteries for solar energy storage. Indeed, this work puts forward an all-in-one device: a device capable of converting and storing solar energy. To this end, a well-known photoactive organic semi-conductor in solar cells (perylene diimide; PDI) was coupled to a conventional and durable electrode material (LiFePO4; LFP) for lithium-ion batteries. This manuscript is divided into three discrete parts following the methodology to demonstrate the fundamental underlying processes of the future all-in-one device before its development: light harvesting and electron transfer. Towards a proof of concept, the thesis systematically studied the light mediated processes in solution, in the solid state, and in an operating device. Initial studies examined the fluorescence quenching of PDI with LFP. This was to validate the injection of electrons from the battery material to the photoexcited semi-conductor indeed occurred. The same emission studies were applied in the solid state for developing a photoelectrode. The two studies generated knowledge about the compositional and architectural requirements of the positive electrode material for it be photoxidized by PDI. Raman spectroscopy further demonstrated the importance of interfaces between the battery material and the organic semiconductor. These enabled a photocharge when the photobattery was illuminated. The PDI was next polymerized and enabled a photocurrent in the battery, courtesy of its collective properties (light harvester, photo-oxidant, electronic conductor, and binder).

Interfacial charge transfer between metal oxides and organic semiconductors has been found to limit the efficiency of organic optoelectronic devices. Although a number of investigations of inorganic/organic systems exist, very few generally applicable rules for oxide/organic interfaces have been developed and many questions about these systems remain unanswered. Thus the studies presented in this dissertation were designed to improve the understanding of the fundamental interface physics of metal oxide/organic systems. Single molecule fluorescence microscopy was employed to determine the charge transfer mechanism while photoelectron spectroscopy was used to determine the energy level alignment of model systems. Additional computational studies allowed the examination of the properties of the charged organic molecules involved in charge transfer and modeling of the molecule-surface interaction. Calculations of the ground state properties and excited state transitions of the neutral and singly charged states of a modified perylene molecule were performed to provide insight into the orbitals of the initial and final states involved in the interfacial charge transfer process. The design and implementation of a novel UHV single molecule microscope is described. This microscope was used to observe the excited state charge transfer between a modified perylene molecule and Al₂O₃ (0001). The charge transfer mechanism was identified as involving activated trapping and detrapping of the defect derived states within the Al₂O₃ band gap, which resulted in the observation of strongly distributed kinetics for this system. The influence of defects and adsorbates on the electronic structure of ZnO and its interface with organic semiconductors was determined from photoelectron spectroscopy. Modified perylene molecules were found to have strong chemisorptive interactions with the ZnO surface involving charge transfer from defect derived ZnO states to the LUMO, while magnesium phthalocyanine molecules appear to have only weak physisorptive interactions with the ZnO surface. The interfacial investigations of the organic/oxide systems demonstrate the rich defect structure present in metal oxides. In both cases, defects were found to control the interfacial interactions between the metal oxide surface and the modified perylene molecules. Thus the manipulation of these defects states is of fundamental importance for optoelectronic device design.

There is currently a great interest to develop and market organic electronic devices, and theoretical models are needed to provide physical insight and quality predictions when designing these materials. Many organic molecules absorb in the UV-vis region of light, and therefore, UV-vis spectroscopy is a relatively simple tool that can help experimentalists "see" the packing arrangements of the molecules within each material, as long as there is a solid theoretical understanding of the photophysics that links the interactions between molecules to changes in optical features. For example, the Kasha spectral shifts have been used for decades to identify J-aggregate and H-aggregate packing arrangements from red- and blue- spectral shifts, respectively. The innate presence of vibronic coupling in organic molecules gives rise to a unique set of additional spectral signatures that are far more reliable than the Kasha spectral shifts for inferring packing arrangements. Moreover, the Kasha shifts are based entirely on Coulomb coupling between molecules, which leads to the creation of delocalized Frenkel excitons. For many π-conjugated organic molecules, however, dispersion forces in π-conjugated chromophores encourage close packing distances of about 3.5-4 Å between organic monomers, which further introduces intermolecular couplings beyond the Coulomb coupling, due to intermolecular charge transfer (CT). Therefore, much theoretical research has focused on incorporating all these effects through a Frenkel-CT-Holstein Hamiltonian, in order to better understand how different packing arrangements within a given material can be identified through specific changes in steady-state absorption and photoluminescence features. In this thesis, the Frenkel-CT-Holstein model is specifically applied to study the absorption and photoluminescent spectra of various derivatives of perylene diimide (PDI), which are of great interest as non-fullerene acceptors in organic photovoltaic design. PDIs display a plethora of packing arrangements and corresponding spectral signatures just by varying the substituents within the PDI core. This thesis first aims to understand the exciton band structure of two different PDI micro-crystals that both experience similar Frenkel-CT interference, but with one system displaying dominant Coulomb interactions while the other undergoes dominant Frenkel-CT coupling. Both are close to what is called a “null”-point, and the work in this thesis explores the photoluminescent signature as a reliable means to track which side of the “null”-point the Frenkel-CT interference lies. While the Frenkel-CT-Holstein model is successful in modeling mostly absorption spectra of aggregates composed of PDI monomers, one challenge has been that aggregates of PDIs often exhibit so-called excimer features in their photoluminescence spectra, which the model cannot account for. Systems that emit broad, structureless and red-shifted excimer peaks typically display inefficient exciton transport in organic semiconductors. The bulk of this thesis has been to expand the model to account for excimer emission, which is made possible by utilizing a Holstein-Peierls (HP) Hamiltonian that incorporates the effects of both local vibronic coupling and nonlocal Frenkel-CT coupling to intermolecular motions within a dimer. The experimental spectra for two different PDI dimer systems that display different excimer features is successfully reproduced with the new theory. This thesis concludes by analyzing how nonlocal coupling, which account for changes in the Frenkel-CT mixing along an intermolecular vibrational mode, can lead to various types of excimers. Different phase relations within the electron and hole nonlocal coupling parameters can combine with different phase relations within the electron and hole Frenkel-CT coupling parameters, leading to a rich array of excimer properties, especially when combined with the additional effects of Coulomb coupling, as well as local intermolecular vibronic coupling, which can either enhance or diminish the excimer photoluminescence. Overall, the Holstein-Peierls approach offers insight into the roles of Frenkel and CT excitons in excimer formation, and highlights the importance of the magnitude and phase of the intermolecular electron and hole transfer integrals in the ground and excited state geometries in producing distinct excimer features. The model provides further insight into the origin of excimers, which lays a foundation for future theoretical and experimental studies in designing organic materials. / Chemistry

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L’amélioration des performances des dispositifs photovoltaïques organiques passe par le contrôle de la morphologie de leurs couches actives. Nous avons cherché à préparer une hétérojonction volumique donneur-accepteur nanostructurée en utilisant la nucléation hétérogène du poly (3-hexylthiophène) (P3HT, donneur) par des fibres d’organogélateurs à base de naphthalène diimide (NDI, accepteur). La première partie de ce travail présente l’étude des propriétés d’auto-assemblage d’organogélateurs à cœur NDI substitué par des groupements amides et des dendrons trialkoxyphényles. Nous avons évalué l’influence de la longueur de la chaîne flexible entre le cœur naphthalène et les groupements amides (2 liaisons C-C pour NDI2 et 4 pour NDI4) sur les propriétés physico-chimiques des organogélateurs. La seconde partie de ce travail met en évidence le polymorphisme du composé NDI2 en identifiant 4 polymorphes ainsi que leurs signatures optiques, spectroscopiques et structurales. Un diagramme de phase de l’état solide du NDI2 est proposé. La dernière partie de la thèse concerne l’élaboration de nano-composites donneur-accepteur entre les organogélateurs à cœur NDI et le P3HT. Le processus de formation en solution de ces nano-composites est analysé en suivant les cinétiques de cristallisation du P3HT par spectroscopie d’absorption UV-Visible et les morphologies obtenues (structures shish-kebab) par microscopie électronique en transmission. L’effet nucléant des organogélateurs sur le P3HT a été montré. Les études en cellules solaires des composés P3HT:PCBM : organogélateur ont prouvé que le rendement de conversion énergétique peut être augmenté en présence d’organogélateurs. / Improving the performances of organic photovoltaic devices requires morphology control of the active layers. Highly nanostructured donor-acceptor bulk heterojunctions were prepared by heterogeneous nucleation of poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT, donor) on naphthalene diimide organogelators fibers (NDI, acceptor). The first part of this work was dedicated to the self-assembly of NDI-core organogelators substituted by amide groups and trialkoxyphenyls dendrons. We evaluated the influence of the flexible chain between the naphthalene core and the amide groups (2 C-C bonds for NDI2 and 4 for NDI4) on the physico-chemical properties of the organogelators.The second part of this work focused on the polymorphism of NDI2 with identification of four different polymorphs with their optical, spectroscopic and structural signatures. A phase diagram of NDI2 in the solid state was determined. The last part of this manuscript concerns the fabrication of donor-acceptor nano-composites between NDI organogelators and P3HT. The formation process in solution of these nano-composites was analyzed by following the crystallization kinetics of P3HT by UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy and the thin film morphology (shish-kebab structures) by transmission electron microscopy. The nucleating effect of various organogelators on P3HT was demonstrated. Solar cells were made from the composites P3HT:PCBM : organogelator and their energetic conversion yield was shown to be increased in the presence of organogelators.

Chemisorption of an organic monolayer to tune the surface properties of a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) electrode can improve the performance of organic electronic devices that rely on efficient charge transfer between an organic active layer and a TCO contact. Here, a series of perylene diimides (PDIs) was synthesized and used to study relationships between monolayer structure/properties and electron transfer kinetics at PDI-modified indium-tin oxide (ITO) electrodes. In these PDI molecules, one of the imide substituents is a benzene ring bearing a phosphonic acid (PA) and the other is a bulky aryl group that is twisted out of the plane of the PDI core. The size of the bulky aryl group and the substitution of the benzene ring bearing the PA were both varied, which altered the extent of aggregation when these molecules were absorbed as monolayer films (MLs) on ITO, as revealed by both attenuated total reflectance (ATR) and total internal reflection fluorescence spectra. Polarized ATR measurements indicate that, in these MLs, the long axis of the PDI core is tilted at an angle of 33-42 degrees relative to the surface normal; the tilt angle increased as the degree of bulky substitution increased. Rate constants for electron transfer (k(s,opt)) between these redox-active modifiers and ITO were determined by potential-modulated ATR spectroscopy. As the degree of PDI aggregation was reduced, k(s,opt) declined, which is attributed to a reduction in the lateral electron self-exchange rate between adsorbed PDI molecules, as well as the heterogeneous conductivity of the ITO electrode surface. Photoelectrochemical measurements using a dissolved aluminum phthalocyanine as an electron donor showed that ITO modified with any of these PDIs is a more effective electron-collecting electrode than bare ITO.

O uso e estudo de materiais híbridos para desenvolver novos materiais com qualidades superiores para aplicações em fotônica, sensores e áreas afins é um desafio para o químico. Neste contexto deve-se especular sobre as propriedades de associação de materiais orgânicos e inorgânicos para alcançar novas e melhores propriedades. Neste estudo, os óxidos metálicos (óxidos de cério em particular), uma classe especial entre nanopartículas inorgânicas, foram selecionados para explorar as suas aplicações com uma classe, também especial de compostos orgânicos, sendo no nosso estudo as Naftaleno Diimidas. Óxido de cério é um semicondutor, com uma “bandgap” larga, conhecido por sua capacidade catalítica e por sua simples manipulação para preparar filmes finos e nanopartículas. Derivados de Naftaleno Diimidas são conhecidos por sua superior atividade eletroquímica comparáveis aos dos Paraquat (metilviologênio), mas com amplitude maior de aplicações fotoquímicas. Foram sintetizadas Naftaleno Diimidas carregados positivamente e negativamente com propriedades surfactantes. Após a caracterização detalhada das Naftaleno Diimidas, incluindo auto-associação e interação com moléculas de surfactantes, a interação com nanopartículas de óxido de cério foram determinadas. As Naftaleno Diimidas interagiram de forma especial com nanopartículas de óxido de cério conferindo ausência de atividade hidrolítica e um comportamento fotocrômico singular. Propõe-se que o corante orgânico se adsorve nas ranhuras das nanopartículas e, além disso forma dímeros estáveis que têm importância para as novas fotoatividades observadas. / The use and study of hybrid materials is a challenge for the chemist to develop materials having new and superior qualities for applications in photonics, sensors and related areas. In this context one has to speculate on the properties of the organic and inorganic partners to achieve better and new properties. In this study the metal oxides (in particular Cerium Oxides), a special class among inorganic nanoparticles were selected to exploit their applications with an also special class of organic compounds the Naphthalene Diimides. Cerium Oxide is a wide bandgap semiconductor well known for its catalytic capabilities and for its simple manipulation to prepare thin films and nanoparticles. Naphthalene Diimides derivatives are known for their superior lectrochemical activities comparable to those of Paraquat (Methyl Viologen) but with larger amplitude of photochemical applications. Positively and negatively charged, surfactant like, Naphthalene Diimides, were synthesized. After detailed characterization of the Naphthalene Diimides including selfassociation and interaction with surfactant molecules, the interaction with Cerium Oxide nanoparticles was determined. Naphthalene Diimides interacted in a special manner with Cerium Oxide nanoparticles rendering hydrolytic inertness and novel photochromic behavior. The organic dye is proposed to adsorb in the crevices of the particles and furthermore forming stable dimers that accounts for the new photoactivities observed

To better understand the physical and electronic properties of donor and acceptor-based structures used in organic electronic applications, a variety of oligothiophene and naphthalene diimide-based small conjugated molecules were designed, synthesized, and characterized. The materials were initially synthesized using oxidative copper-chloride coupling reactions, palladium-catalyzed amination reactions, Friedal-Crafts acylations, Negishi coupling reactions, and Stille coupling reactions. Once isolated, the physical properties of the compounds were characterized through a combination of X-ray crystal structure, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, UV-vis. absorption spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and differential pulse voltammetry, along with comparison to quantum-chemical calculations. In some cases, the radical cations or radical anions were generated by chemical oxidation and analyzed by vis-NIR spectroscopy. Furthermore, the electronic properties of the materials were investigated through incorporation as solution-processed active layers in organic field-effect transistors. Multiple examples exhibited hole- and / or electron-transport properties with electron mobility values of up to 1.5 cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹, which is among the highest yet reported for an n-channel OFET based on a solution-processed small molecule.