Induced alignment of a solution-cast discotic hexabenzocoronene derivative for electronic devices investigated by surface X-ray diffraction

Oliver Bunk, Martin Meedom Nielsen, Theis Ivan Sølling, A.M. van de Craats, N. Stutzmann

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

A surface X-ray diffraction study is presented showing that highly ordered and uniaxially aligned hexa(3,7-dimethyl-octanyl)hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene (HBC-C8,2) films can be fabricated by crystallization from solution onto friction-transferred poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) layers. Three crystalline HBC-C8,2 majority phases result. In all three phases, the HBC-C8,2 molecules self-organize into columns which are uniaxially aligned along the direction defined by the PTFE macromolecules of the substrate. The three phases are quite similar, the major difference being their orientation with respect to the substrate. A quasi-2D epitaxial growth mechanism with a grapho-epitaxial component for one of the three phases explains the formation of the three rotational HBC-C8,2 variants. A method to obtain a thin film with only one phase is proposed. The results show that standard Theta-2Theta X-ray diffraction and transmission electron diffraction can be very misleading tools to estimate the crystalline quality in a thin film of complex structure.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of the American Chemical Society
Volume125
Issue number8
Pages (from-to)2252-2258
ISSN0002-7863
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2003

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