Structural changes in 2-diarylthiophene-substituted starburst compounds upon charging: a theoretical and spectroelectrochemical study.

The role of charging in structural changes of 2-diarylaminothiophene-substituted starburst compounds is clarified by combining theoretical and spectroelectrochemical studies. A systematic and comparative theoretical calculation based on density functional theory and semiempirical Austin Model 1 (AM1) calculations is performed on the neutral and charged states of four model tris(5-diarylamino-5-thienyl)-terminated starburst compounds with a central triphenylamine and 1,3,5-triphenylbenzene moiety. Our results indicate that the charging of molecules leads to structural changes by quinoid-type components mostly on the dendrimers terminated by phenothiazinyl fragments. Based on the optimal geometries, the spectroscopic properties were calculated using the semiempirical Zerner's intermediate neglect overlap method. The presented theoretical results and the spin electron distributions of charged states and their spectra are supported by the spectroelectrochemical observations caused by the different electron localization within the studied molecules after charging. The satisfactory agreement between theoretical electronic transitions and experimental values indicates that a rational design of tunable molecular layers in organic devices based on the starburst compounds described is possible.