Emission Control from Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers by Aggregation-Induced Molecular Rotors

Mike Tebyetekerwa*, Yanhua Cheng, Jian Zhang, Weili Li, Hongkun Li, Guru Prakash Neupane, Bowen Wang, Thien N. Truong, Chuanxiao Xiao, Mowafak M. Al-Jassim, Zongyou Yin, Yuerui Lu, Daniel Macdonald, Hieu T. Nguyen*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    23 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Organic-inorganic (O-I) heterostructures, consisting of atomically thin inorganic semiconductors and organic molecules, present synergistic and enhanced optoelectronic properties with a high tunability. Here, we develop a class of air-stable vertical O-I heterostructures comprising a monolayer of transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), including WS2, WSe2, and MoSe2, on top of tetraphenylethylene (TPE) core-based aggregation-induced emission (AIE) molecular rotors. The created O-I heterostructures yields a photoluminescence (PL) enhancement of up to ∼950%, ∼500%, and ∼330% in the top monolayer WS2, MoSe2, and WSe2 as compared to PL in their pristine monolayers, respectively. The strong PL enhancement is mainly attributed to the efficient photogenerated carrier process in the AIE luminogens (courtesy of their restricted intermolecular motions in the solid state) and the charge-transfer process in the created type I O-I heterostructures. Moreover, we observe an improvement in photovoltaic properties of the TMDs in the heterostructures including the quasi-Fermi level splitting, minority carrier lifetime, and light absorption. This work presents an inspiring example of combining stable, highly luminescent AIE-based molecules, with rich photochemistry and versatile applications, with atomically thin inorganic semiconductors for multifunctional and efficient optoelectronic devices.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)7444-7453
    Number of pages10
    JournalACS Nano
    Volume14
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 23 Jun 2020

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