Self-assembly of corrole-appended ferrocene and its response to voltage stimuli

Ferrocene is a versatile organic compound in organic electronics and biomedical applications owing to its oxidation stability and quick response to voltage. Nevertheless, ferrocene-appended organic compounds are seldom reported because of the incompatibility of design with redox materials, regioselectivity, intricate synthetic approaches, and poor yields. Hence, we have developed a corrole-linked ferrocene derivative (Cor-Fc-Cor) and studied its self-assembled nanostructures under stimuli. Differential pulse voltammetry and UV-visible absorption spectra reveal that Cor-Fc-Cor exhibits significant changes in oxidation and reduction potentials when applying the voltage of 0.7 V and 1.2 V, which reflects on variation in Soret and Q-bands when compared to neutral molecules. Subsequently, neutral and stimulated molecules exhibit H-type aggregates through the methanol vapour diffusion approach, and their microscopic data suggest that neutral molecules show a nanosphere, which transforms to the flake-type structures at stimuli of 0.7 V and 1.2 V. Interestingly, electrochemical impedance analyses demonstrate that the self-assembled nanostructures of neutral and stimulated Cor-Fc-Cor exhibit a semiconducting nature. Therefore, this work proposes that novel synthesis and well-defined nanostructures of low-bandgap ferrocene-appended corroles serve as potential candidates for future electronics and energy device applications.