FT-IR Micro-Spectroscopic Studies of Several
Charge-Transfer Organic Electrical Conductors
JOHN R. FERRARO,* HAU H. WANG, JOHN RYAN, and JACK M. WILLIAMS
Loyola University, Department of Chemistry, Chicago, Illinois 60626 (J.R.F.); Argonne National Laboratory, Chemistry and
Materials Science Divisions, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (H.H.W., J.M.W.); and IBM Corp., Oak Brook, Illinois 60521 (J.R.)
A series of infrared reflectance measurements using FT-IR Micro meth-
ods were conducted on bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene (BEDT-TTF
or "ET") and bis(propylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene (BPDT or "PT")
salts of the type (ET)2X, where X = I~ , AuCI2-, AuBr2 , AuI2-, I2Br ,
IBr~ , ICI2 , ReO4 , CIOj, and CH3-©-SO3-; and (PT)~X, where X =
I3, IBr~-, I2Br, and ICI2 . The technique is useful for characterizing,
at room temperature, differences between B-, ~/'- and a'-type structures
vs. a-structures. The B-, B'-, and a'-type structures show a vibrational
feature at ~1280 cm ' which has been assigned as the -C-C-H bending
vibration and is absent in the spectrum of the a-type salts. This vibration
shifts toward higher frequency in going from the PT to the ET salts,
and the results indicate stronger hydrogen bonding and harder lattices
in the ET salts as opposed to the PT salts. This frequency shift also
appears to be a function of the electronegativity of the halogen in the
anion moiety of the charge-transfer salt.
Index Headings: FT-IR Micro-spectroscopic studies; Charge-transfer
organic electrical conductors; Vibronic effects; Reflectance spectra.
INTRODUCTION
Vibrational spectroscopy has proven to be very useful
in the study of 1-dimensional (l-D) organic charge-trans-
fer (CT) compounds. 1-12These studies have been helpful
in determining the degree of charge transfer in these
systems and have also provided information on the
nature of the interaction between the conduction elec-
trons and molecular vibrations (vibronic effects). These
studies have recently been extended to the 2-D charge
transfer compounds, such as the bis(ethylenedithio)-
tetrathiafulvalene (BEDT-TTF or "ET"). 1~-25
In tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) and related molecules, it
has been observed that, when reflectance measurements
are made, vibrational structure appears on the broad
absorption observed for these materials. These features
have been ascribed to vibronic interactions between the
C=C and C-S symmetrical modes (intramolecular tran-
sitions) and the conduction electrons, u and occur in the
range of ~ 1600 to 500 cm -1. In the unoxidized ET mol-
ecule, these features occur at frequencies <1600 cm -1.
The vibrations at 1554 and 1494 cm i have been assigned
as the central C=C stretching vibrations, and the vibra-
tion found at 876 cm -~ has been assigned as the external
C-S stretching motion. Other C-S modes have been
assigned at 507 cm 1 (internal stretch) and 495 cm -1 (ex-
ternal stretch). For the salt a-(ET)2Is, which has a metal-
insulator transition at 135 K, two bands that are super-
imposed on the broad feature (half-bandwidth of ~500
Received 1 May 1987.
* Author to whom correspondence should be sent. Mailing address: 568
Saylor Ave., Elmhurst, IL 60126.
cm ~), and that occur at 1275 and 1160 cm -1, have been
assigned by Meneghetti et al. 14 to the coupling of con-
duction electrons to the C=C stretching modes. These
modes are of the A~.type and, normally, are only Raman-
active. However, when coupling occurs, a lowering of
symmetry follows in the ET molecule stacks and the
vibronic spectrum becomes infrared-active. Similar fea-
tures have been observed in the reflectance spectrum of
the ambient-pressure organic superconductor (To ~ 1.5
K) ~-(ET)2I~. I3,t~ 19,2t For (ET)2C104(C2H3CI~)0.~, which is
metallic to 1.4 K, a broad continuum from 340 to 25,000
cm 1, without vibrational structure in the room-temper-
ature reflectance spectrum, was observed. 6,2' For
(ET)2PF6, the room-temperature reflectance spectrum
has been reported, 2°,2t and vibrational structure was ob-
served on broad bands at ~2500 and ~1200 cm 1. A
sharp peak was also observed at ~300 cm 1.
This paper reports on the infrared reflectance results
obtained with several (ET)2X salts, where X = I3-,
AuC12-, AuBr2-, IBr2-, I2Br-, IC12-, Re04, Br04 , and
CH~-(I}-SO~ , involving /3, fl', a, and a' structures, and
several bis(propylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene (BPDT-
TTF or "PT") salts (e.g., (PT)2X, where X = I3 , IBr2-,
I2Br-, and IC12-). Room-temperature spectra were ob-
tained by micro-Fourier transform interferometry, by
use of reflectance techniques, and comparisons between
the various salts are discussed.
EXPERIMENTAL
The materials studied in this paper have been syn-
thesized according to a procedure previously reported. 26
As only small amounts of single crystalline material were
available for each substance, we relied on FT-IR micro-
spectroscopy, a relatively new technique for our mea-
surements. 27 An IBM FT-IR microscope was interfaced
with an IBM IR/44 interferometer, and the binocular
microscope was mounted externally. The sample was
placed on a sodium chloride window, and the data were
collected by reflectance methods, since the materials are
opaque. A mercury-cadmium-telluride detector and an
aperture of 80 t~m were used. Data were taken at 4-cm -1
resolution with 1000 scans. All data were measured at
room temperature and were unpolarized, inasmuch as
low-temperature capabilities and polarizability mea-
surements were unavailable in our system.
RESULTS
Numerous differences in the reflectance spectra are
noted for the range of charge transfer salts studied (vide
infra). For the (ET)2X salts, four different structures are
Volume 41, Number 8, 1987 ooo~-7o~8/smtos-t~7752.oo/o APPLIED SPECTROSCOPY 1377
© 1987 Society for Applied Spectroscopy