End-Functionalization of Diarylethene for Opto-Electronic Switching with High Fatigue Resistance

A molecular and synthetic approach to strengthen the switching performance of diarylethene (DAE)-based organic transistors is proposed. By tuning the length of alkyl side chains of the biphenyl unit attached to 1,2-bis(5-biphenyl-2-methylthien-3-yl)perfluorocyclopentene (DAE), we show that the molecular environment for reversible photoisomerization of DAEs can be optimized. Four different DAEs are synthesized with different alkyl chains (DAE_C0, DAE_C1, DAE_C6, and DAE_C10), and ITIC is chosen to construct a semiconductor matrix to maximize the quantum yield of photoconversion considering the complementary absorption range of both materials. From photophysical, structural, and morphological analyses, the longer alkyl chains inhibit intermolecular aggregation between DAEs and allow more hydrophobic surface properties of DAEs, thus improving molecular miscibility with ITIC. The improved molecular compatibility of DAEs with ITIC makes the overall bulk heterojunction film amorphous, allowing more free volume for reversible photoisomerization. Consequently, DAE_C6 exhibits the maximum quantum yield for both photocyclization and photocycloreversion, enabling high light-controlled on/off ratios in photoswitchable transistors. Furthermore, the exceptionally high DAE_C6 quantum yield enables robust fatigue resistance under repeated photoswitching with only a 30% decrease in the on/off ratio after 100 cycles. Overall, this work shows that not only the energy level but also the molecular compatibility can endow significant switching performances for molecular switches.