Electronic properties of tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)porphyrin

We studied in detail the electronic properties of C44H10F20N4 (tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)porphyrin, hereafter H2TPP(F)) via a combined study by photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) and density functional (DF) calculations, shedding new light on the role of the halide in this very interesting molecule for organic electronics. Valence and core levels have been investigated by means of PES on H2TPP(F) thin films deposited on the SiO2/Si(100) native oxide surface by supersonic molecular beam deposition (SuMBD). These experiments have been carefully interpreted on the basis of DF results pertaining to the isolated H2TPP(F). Non-relativistic calculations have been run to investigate valence states, whereas a two component relativistic approach within the zeroth-order regular approximation has been adopted to study core levels. The present results, in conjunction with those obtained previously on the H2TPP parent compound [M. Nardi, R. Verucchi, C. Corradi, M. Pola, M. Casarin, A. Vittadini and S. Iannotta, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2010, 12, 871], pave the way towards designing fully organic p–n junctions by using these macrocycles.