Materials Research
Pentacenes have been examined as potential dichroic dyes. The pentacenoquinone displayed below is fluorescent and when mixed with liquid crystal E7 mixture a dichroic ratio of 8 is reached. Longer acenes align better in the nematic liquid crystal phase.
Combined with buckminsterfullerene, pentacene is used in the development of organic photovoltaic prototypes.
Pentacene is a popular choice for research on organic thin-film transistors and OFETs, being one of the most thoroughly investigated conjugated organic molecules with a high application potential due to a hole mobility in OFETs of up to 5.5 cm2/(V·s), which exceeds that of amorphous silicon.
Pentacene, as well as other organic conductors, is subject to rapid oxidation in air, which precludes commercialization. If the pentacene is preoxidized, the pentacene-quinone is a potential gate insulator, then the mobility can approach that of rubrene – the highest-mobility organic semiconductor – namely, 40 cm2/(V·s). This pentacene oxidation technique is akin to the silicon oxidation used in the silicon electronics.
Read more about this topic: Pentacene
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