One-Dimensional Fullerene/Porphyrin Cocrystals: Near-Infrared Light Sensing through Component Interactions

Recently, organic donor–acceptor (D–A) cocrystals have attracted special interest as functional materials because of their unique chemical and physical properties that are not exhibited by simple mixtures of their components. Herein, we report the preparation of one-dimensional novel D–A cocrystals from C60 and 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(3,5-dimethoxyphenyl)porphyrin (3,5-TPP); these cocrystals have near-infrared (NIR) light-sensing abilities, despite each of their component molecule individually having no NIR light-sensing properties. Micrometer-sized rectangular columnar C60-3,5-TPP cocrystals were produced by a simple liquid–liquid interfacial precipitation method. The cocrystals exhibit a new strong transition in the NIR region indicative of the existence of charge-transfer interactions between C60 and 3,5-TPP in the cocrystals. The C60-3,5-TPP cocrystals showed n-type transport characteristics with NIR light-sensing properties when the cocrystals were incorporated in bottom-gate/bottom-contact organic phototransistors, revealing that organic cocrystals with suitable charge-transfer interaction are useful as functional materials for the creation of novel NIR-light-sensing devices.