Intermolecular coupling enhanced thermopower in single-molecule diketopyrrolopyrrole junctions

Autor: Fang Chao, Almughathawi Renad, Wu Qingqing, Cao Wenqiang, Chen Hang, Hou Songjun, Gu Yu, Zhang Hewei, Zhao Yi, Zheng Jueting, Li Guopeng, Shi Jia, Liu Junyang, Mao Bing-Wei, Liu Zitong, Lambert Colin J., Hong Wenjing
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: National Science Open, Vol 2 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2097-1168
DOI: 10.1360/nso/20220039
Popis: Sorting out organic molecules with high thermopower is essential for understanding molecular thermoelectrics. The intermolecular coupling offers a unique chance to enhance the thermopower by tuning the bandgap structure of molecular devices, but the investigation of intermolecular coupling in bulk materials remains challenging. Herein, we investigated the thermopower of diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) cored single-molecule junctions with different coupling strengths by varying the packing density of the self-assembled monolayers (SAM) using a customized scanning tunneling microscope break junction (STM-BJ) technique. We found that the thermopower of DPP molecules could be enhanced up to one order of magnitude with increasing packing density, suggesting that the thermopower increases with larger neighboring intermolecular interactions. The combined density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed that the closely-packed configuration brings stronger intermolecular coupling and then reduces the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) gap, leading to an enhanced thermopower. Our findings offer a new strategy for developing organic thermoelectric devices with high thermopower.
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