Occurrence of excited state charge separation in a N-doped graphene–perylenediimide hybrid formed via ‘click’ chemistry

Hetero-atom doped graphene is a two-dimensional material with a band gap, needed to build optoelectronic devices. However, research progress in this area has been sluggish due to synthetic challenges to build energy harvesting materials, especially donor–acceptor type hybrids. In the present study, using click chemistry, we have successfully synthesized a donor–acceptor hybrid comprised of N-doped graphene and perylenediimide (PDI), a well-known electron-accepting photosensitizer. The TGA and XPS results revealed the attachment of the PDI moiety in the hybrid. Ground and excited state interactions were monitored by a variety of spectral and electrochemical techniques. Finally, the ability of the present donor–acceptor hybrid to undergo photoinduced charge separation from singlet excited PDI was systematically probed using femtosecond transient spectral techniques. Evidence of charge separation was possible to achieve from comparison of transient and spectroelectrochemical results. These results suggest the potential use of covalently functionalized, substitutional N-doped graphene as a functional material for building optoelectronic devices.