Morphological, optical and electrochemical properties of tin(II) 2,3-naphthalocyanine for organic electronic applications

Herein, tin(II) 2,3-naphthalocyanine (SnNC) organic dye was successfully thermally deposited onto different optical transparent substrates such as glass, quartz, ITO, and FTO. FE-SEM technique reveals that SnNC film shows a uniform and symmetrical spherical-shaped with an average diameter of ∼50 nm. Annealing up to 473 K for 4 h increases the crystallite size of SnNC thin film. SnNC thin film shows absorption bands centered at 858 nm, 313 nm, and 249 nm with two shoulders at 775 nm and 350 nm. We present the absorbance, specular transmittance, specular reflectance and fluorescence properties of SnNc deposited on the different transparent substrates. The oscillator strengths (f) and the electric dipole strength (q²) of SnNC thin film were estimated from the molar absorptivity ( ε molar ) spectra. According to the Tauc model, two optical gap transitions were estimated as 1.03 eV and 3.48 eV. Annealing up to 473 K for 4 h slightly increases them to 1.15 eV and 3.59 eV, respectively. At excitation wavelength = 360 nm, two emission bands were observed at around 403 nm and 674 nm. Upon annealing at 373 K and 473 K, the real part of the refractive index of SnNC thin film decreases, which is correlated with a decrease in mass density. Electrochemical HOMO—LUMO band gaps of SnNC estimated from the cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements ( E g C V = 1.12 eV ) agree well with the observed optical energy gap estimated from the optical measurements. The wide range absorption, emission, good thermal stability, suitable optical band gap, and electrochemical properties, prove an effective example of organic dye suitable for organic electronic applications.