Solid-to-Solid Crystallization of Organic Thin Films: Classical and Nonclassical Pathways.

The solid-to-solid crystallization processes of organic molecules have been poorly understood in view of the complexity and the instability of organic crystals. Here, we studied the crystallization of a π-conjugated small molecular semiconductor, bis-(8-hydroxyquinoline) copper (CuQ ₂ ), by annealing the thin films at different temperatures. We observed a classical film-to-nanorods crystallization at 80 °C, a coexistence of classical and nonclassical nucleation and particle growth at 120 °C, and a nonclassical crystal growth at 150 °C. We found that the growth of the crystals followed the following processes: particle nucleation, particle growth, particle migration, nondirectional particle attachment, and structure reconstruction. We notice that the growth of CuQ ₂ particles follows an outside-to-inside process. More interestingly, our experiments suggest that the submicron CuQ ₂ particles are able to migrate dozens of micrometers at 150 °C.
Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest.