Influence of Al₂O₃ Overlayers on Intermolecular Interactions between Metal Oxide Bound Molecules

Intermolecular interactions on inorganic substrates can have a critical impact on the electrochemical and photophysical properties of the materials and subsequent performance in hybrid electronics. Critical to the intentional formation or inhibition of these processes is controlling interactions between molecules on a surface. In this report, we investigated the impact of surface loading and atomic-layer-deposited Al2O3 overlayers on the intermolecular interactions of a ZrO2-bound anthracene derivative as probed by the photophysical properties of the interface. While surface loading density had no impact on the absorption spectra of the films, there was an increase in excimer features with surface loading as observed by both emission and transient absorption. The addition of ALD overlayers of Al2O3 resulted in a decrease in excimer formation, but the emission and transient absorption spectra were still dominated by excimer features. These results suggest that ALD may provide a post-surface loading means of influencing such intermolecular interactions.