The mixed-valence character of a set of six bistriarylamine derivatives with varying π-electron spacers has been investigated. The distances of triarylamine redox centers vary from 0.5 nm (N,N,N‘,N‘-tetra-4-methoxyphenyl-p-phenylenediamine, 6 + ) to 2 nm (1,4-bis{4-[N,N-di(4-methoxyphenyl)amino]phenylethynyl}benzene, 1 + ). All radical cation species show rather strong intervalence charge-transfer (IV−CT) bands in the NIR as measured by UV/vis/NIR spectroelectrochemistry. Hush analysis was used to derive the electronic coupling V, which is very high and ranges from 500 to 3240 cm-1. A detailed band shape analysis revealed a cutoff at 2V at the low-energy side of the IV−CT bands when the coupling 2V approaches the band maximum λ. This results in very narrow IV−CT bands much smaller than the high-temperature limit, although even the phenylenediamine derivative 6 + belongs to the Robin/Day class II (localized redox centers) just at the border to class III (delocalized redox centers). Hush theory anticipates this cutoff because the smallest energy transition possible is at 2V. The ultrafast thermal electron-transfer rate constants were estimated from V and range from about 109 s-1 to 1012 s-1. The electrochemical properties have also been investigated:  a linear correlation of redox potential splitting vs electronic coupling was found.

Mixed-valence (MV) compounds are excellent model systems for the investigation of basic electron-transfer (ET) or charge-transfer (CT) phenomena. These issues are important in complex biophysical processes such as photosynthesis as well as in artificial electronic devices that are based on organic conjugated materials. Organic MV compounds are effective hole-transporting materials in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), solar cells, and photochromic windows. However, the importance of organic mixed-valence chemistry should not be seen in terms of the direct applicability of these species but the wealth of knowledge about ET phenomena that has been gained through their study. The great variety of organic redox centers and spacer moieties that may be combined in MV systems as well as the ongoing refinement of ET theories and methods of investigation prompted enormous interest in organic MV compounds in the last decades and show the huge potential of this class of compounds. The goal of this Review is to give an overview of the last decade in organic mixed valence chemistry and to elucidate its impact on modern functional materials chemistry.

The transport of excitation energy in molecular aggregates is of crucial importance for the function of organic optoelectronic devices and next‐generation solar cells. First, this review summarizes the theoretical background of the nature of the electronically excited states of molecular aggregates. For these systems, the electronic interaction between the monomers leads to the formation of exciton states. This goes along with a shift of the excitation energies and a redistribution of the oscillator strength with respect to the monomers. Next, a brief overview is provided over experimental techniques that allow to study the properties of excitons in molecular aggregates. This includes single‐molecule spectroscopy, coherent two‐dimensional (2D) spectroscopy, and single‐molecule coherent spectroscopy. Finally, examples of molecular aggregates spanning the range from natural systems that act in photosynthesis as light‐harvesting antennas to artificial aggregates built from synthetic chromophores are illustrated.

Structures, dipole moments, electron-transfer barriers, and spin density distributions of a series of mixed-valent bistriarylamin radical cations have been studied systematically by hybrid density functional methods with variable exact-exchange admixture combined with a continuum solvent model. The chosen systems differ in their bridging units and are all relatively close, from both sides, to the class II/III borderline of the Robin-Day classification of mixed-valence systems. Solvent effects are found to have a dramatic influence on the localized vs delocalized character of these cations. While gas-phase calculations or computations in a nonpolar solvent place all systems on the delocalized class III side, a more polar solvent like acetonitrile enables observation of symmetry breaking and charge localization with moderate exact-exchange admixtures in a hybrid functional for the systems on the class II side (with diphenylbutadiyne and diphenylethyne bridges). In contrast, the cations with the shortest bridges (phenylene, biphenylene) are characterized as class III. The comparison of computed intervalence charge-transfer excitation frequencies with experiment confirms the system with the diphenylbutadiyne bridge, and probably the system with the diphenylethyne bridge, to be class II, whereas in the dichloromethane solvent employed for spectroscopic measurements, the two other systems are on the class III side. Nonstandard hybrid density functional calculations with 35% Hartree-Fock-like exchange combined with continuum solvent models are suggested as a practical protocol for the quantum-chemical characterization of organic mixed-valence systems. This approach should allow closer examinations and provides a basis for the evaluation of other computational methods.

Hopping and superexchange are generally considered to be alternative electron-transfer mechanisms in molecular systems. In this work we used mixed-valence radical cations as model systems for the investigation of electron-transfer pathways. We show that substituents attached to a conjugated bridge connecting two triarylamine redox centres have a marked influence on the near-infrared absorption spectra of the corresponding cations. Spectral analysis, followed by evaluation of the electron-transfer parameters using the Generalized Mulliken-Hush theory and simulation of the potential energy surfaces, indicate that hopping and superexchange are not alternatives, but are both present in the radical cation with a dimethoxybenzene bridge. We found that the type of electron-transfer mechanism depends on the bridge-reorganization energy as well as on the bridge-state energy. Because superexchange and hopping follow different distance laws, our findings have implications for the design of new molecular and polymeric electron-transfer materials.