'Ixen' Synthesized After 79 Years... A New Chapter in Organic Semiconductors

Twisted planar structure (non-planar structure) of ixene doped with nitrogen and boron

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] A substance known as 'Ixene' since 1941, but never actually synthesized, has been successfully created by domestic researchers. This substance is expected to be used as an organic semiconductor material to replace silicon semiconductors.

The research team led by Professors Youngseok Park, Geunsik Lee, and Hyeongjun Shin at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology announced on the 26th that they succeeded in synthesizing the 'Ixene' molecule, one of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon substances. The related paper was published in Angewandte Chemie on the 24th (local time).

Ixene is a substance whose molecular structure was proposed 79 years ago but had not been synthesized until now. The research team first synthesized Ixene by utilizing the 'cyclization reaction' of diacetylene molecules and the 'carbon-hydrogen arylation reaction' using a palladium catalyst.

Ixene belongs to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which consist of multiple carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal ring shapes. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have freely moving electrons within the molecule, making them suitable for use as semiconductor materials.

The research team additionally synthesized B2N2-ixene by adding nitrogen and boron to Ixene. This modification was made to enable the use of Ixene as an organic semiconductor. This substance can reduce the energy gap by doping nitrogen and boron at specific positions.

Through actual experiments and theoretical calculations, the research team demonstrated that the B2N2-ixene molecule has a narrower energy gap compared to Ixene. In particular, using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, they observed that B2N2-ixene absorbs light at longer wavelengths (λabs) than Ixene. This indicates that the energy gap of the B2N2-ixene molecule is narrower.

Professor Youngseok Park said, "This research is significant not only because we synthesized a new substance called Ixene using modern organic chemistry, but also because we proposed a method to precisely add desired substances at specific positions of the molecule to control its physical properties." He added, "The palladium catalyst and carbon-hydrogen arylation reaction used in this study are expected to be applicable as strategies for synthesizing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with larger molecular sizes."

Analysis of Optical and Electrochemical Properties of Synthesized Organic Semiconductor Materials

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