Luminescent blue boron-containing nanographenes are highly
promising materials for portable electronic devices
(June 10, 2015) Major
advances in the field of organic electronics are currently revolutionising
previously silicon-dominated semiconductor technology. Customised organic
molecules enable the production of lightweight, mechanically flexible
electronic components that are perfectly adapted to individual applications.
Chemists at the Goethe University have now developed a new class of organic
luminescent materials through the targeted introduction of boron atoms into the
molecular structures. The compounds described in the professional journal
"Angewandte Chemie" (Applied Chemistry) feature an intensive blue
fluorescence and are therefore of interest for use in organic light-emitting
diodes (LED's).
Carbon in the form of graphite conducts the electrical
current in a similar way to a metal. In addition, its two-dimensional shape,
the graphene layer, has extremely attractive optical and electronic properties.
In graphene, the discoverers of which were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics
in 2010, countless benzene rings are fused to form a honeycomb structure.
Sections of this structure, so-called nanographenes or Polycyclic Aromatic
Hydrocarbons (PAHs), constitute an important basis of organic electronics.