Experimental and theoretical study on molecular aggregation and its effect on the photo-physical properties of the mesogenic bi-1,3,4-thiadiazole derivative

Abstract

A bi-thiadiazole derivative, 5,5′-bis(4- tetradecyloxyphenyl)-2,2′-bi-1,3,4-thiadiazole (BTD-14), was revealed to exhibit an extremely stable thermotropic SmC phase and very interesting aggregation behavior in solutions. H- and J-aggregates could be formed simultaneously in chloroform solutions of BTD-14 with moderate concentration (10⁻⁴ M), and the population of J-aggregates enlarges during further concentration increase. All monomers, H-aggregates and J-aggregates in solutions could be reserved in the drop-cast films, and both the presence of J-aggregates and the energy transfer path from H-aggregates to J-aggregates were considered to contribute to the relative high solid state fluorescence quantum yield (33%). The BTD-1 dimer potential energy surface (PES) was computed with M062x/6-31G** method, and the molecular packing pattern corresponding to the lowest minimum of the PES are in good agreement with the crystal structures. Exploring the effect of molecular packing on its electronic structure with the TD-M062x method revealed that J-aggregates could be formed by enlarging the intermolecular displacement along the molecular long axis by about 9.8 Å.