Nonlinear Nonacenes with a Dithienothiophene Substructure: Multifunctional Compounds that Act as Columnar Mesogens, Luminophores, π Gelators, and p-Type Semiconductors

Phenanthrothiophene-Triazine Star-Shaped Discotic Liquid Crystals: Synthesis, Self-Assembly, and Stimuli-Responsive Fluorescence Properties

Lipophilic biphenylthiophene- and phenanthrothiophene-triazine compounds, BPTTn and CPTTn, respectively, were prepared by a tandem procedure involving successive Suzuki-Miyaura coupling and Scholl cyclodehydrogenation reactions. These compounds display photoluminescence in solution and in thin film state, solvatochromism with increasing solvent's polarity, as well as acidochromism and metal ion recognition stimuli-responsive fluorescence. Protonation of BPTT10 and CPTT10 by trifluoroacetic acid results in fluorescence quenching, which is reversibly restored once treated with triethylamine (ON-OFF switch). DFT computational studies show that intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) phenomena occurs for both molecules, and reveal that protonation enhances the electron-withdrawing ability of the triazine core and reduces the band gap. This acidochromic behavior was applied to a prototype fluorescent anti-counterfeiting device. They also specifically recognize Fe3+ through coordination, and the recognition mechanism is closely related to the photoinduced electron transfer between Fe3+ and BPTT10/CPTT10. CPTTn self-assemble into columnar rectangular (Colrec) mesophase, which can be modulated by oleic acid via the formation of a hydrogen-bonded supramolecular liquid crystal hexagonal Colhex mesophase. Finally, CPTTn also form organic gels in alkanes at low critical gel concentration (3.0 mg/mL). Therefore, these star-shaped triazine molecules possess many interesting features and thus hold great promises for information processing, liquid crystal semiconductors and organogelators.

Pyrene-Fused Poly-Aromatic Regioisomers: Synthesis, Columnar Mesomorphism, and Optical Properties

π-Extended pyrene compounds possess remarkable luminescent and semiconducting properties and are being intensively investigated as electroluminescent materials for potential uses in organic light-emitting diodes, transistors, and solar cells. Here, the synthesis of two sets of pyrene-containing π-conjugated polyaromatic regioisomers, namely 2,3,10,11,14,15,20,21-octaalkyloxypentabenzo[a,c,m,o,rst]pentaphene (BBPn) and 2,3,6,7,13,14,17,18-octaalkyloxydibenzo[j,tuv]phenanthro [9,10-b]picene (DBPn), is reported. They were obtained using the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling in tandem with Scholl oxidative cyclodehydrogenation reactions from the easily accessible precursors 1,8- and 1,6-dibromopyrene, respectively. Both sets of compounds, equipped with eight peripheral aliphatic chains, self-assemble into a single hexagonal columnar mesophase, with one short-chain BBPn homolog also exhibiting another columnar mesophase at a lower temperature, with a rectangular symmetry; BBPn isomers also possess wider mesophase ranges and higher mesophases' stability than their DBPn homologs. These polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons all show a strong tendency of face-on orientation on the substrate and could be controlled to edge-on alignment through mechanical shearing of interest for their implementation in photoelectronic devices. In addition, both series BBPn and DBPn display green-yellow luminescence, with high fluorescence quantum yields, around 30%. In particular, BBPn exhibit a blue shift phenomenon in both absorption and emission with respect to their DBPn isomers. DFT results were in good agreement with the optical properties and with the stability ranges of the mesophases by confirming the higher divergence from the flatness of DBPn compared with BBPn. Based on these interesting properties, these isomers could be potentially applied not only in the field of fluorescent dyes but also in the field of organic photoelectric semiconductor materials as electron transport materials.

Dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]thiophene (DTT): an emerging heterocyclic building block for future organic electronic materials & functional supramolecular chemistry

Heterocyclic compounds being potent biochemical materials are ubiquitous molecules in our life. Amongst, the five membered aromatic ring systems, thiophene has emerged as a remarkable entity in organic electronics owing to its (i) high resonance energy, (ii) more electrophilic reactivity than benzene, (iii) high π-electron density, (iv) planar structure and, (v) presence of vacant d-orbital in addition to the presence of loosely bind lone-pairs of electrons on sulfur atoms. In recent past, thiophene-fused molecule namely, dithienothiophene (DTT) has attracted a tremendous attention of the researchers worldwide due to their potential applicability in organic electronics such as in solar cells, electrochromic devices (ECDs), organic field effect transistors (OFETs), organic limiting diodes (OLEDs), fluorescent probes, redox switching and so forth because of their (i) higher charge mobility, (ii) extended π-conjugation, and (iii) better tuning of band gaps, etc. In this particular review article, we envisioned to report the recent advancements made on the DTT-based architectures not only because of the potential applicability of this valuable scaffold in organic electronic but also to motivate the young researchers worldwide to look for the challenging opportunities related to this privileged building block in both material sciences and functional supramolecular chemistry.

Ditriphenylenothiophene butterfly-shape liquid crystals. The influence of polyarene core topology on self-organization, fluorescence and photoconductivity

Two series of regio-isomeric mesomorphous, luminescent and conductive compounds, based on a ditriphenylenothiophene core (α/β-DTPT), were successfully synthesized by the Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling/Scholl cyclo-dehydrogenation reactions tandem.

Butterfly-like Shape Liquid Crystals Based Fused-Thiophene as Unidimensional Ambipolar Organic Semiconductors with High Mobility

Mesomorphous butterfly-like shape molecules based on benzodithiophene, benzodithiophene-4,8-dione and cyclopentadithiophen-4-one core moieties were efficiently synthesized by the Suzuki-Miyaura coupling and Scholl oxidative cyclo-dehydrogenation reactions' tandem. Most of the butterfly molecules spontaneously self-organize into columnar hexagonal mesophase. The electron-deficient systems possess strong solvent-gelling ability but are not luminescent, whereas the electron-rich terms do not form gels but strongly emit light between 400 and 600 nm. The charge carrier mobility was also measured by time-of-flight transient photocurrent technique in the mesophases for some of the compounds. They display hole-transport performances with positive charge mobility in the 10^-3  cm^-2  V^-1  s^-1 range, consistent with the high degree of ordering and stability of the columnar superstructures. In particular, the mesogen with a benzodithiophen-4,8-dione core shows ambipolar charge carrier transport with both high electron (μ_e =6.6×10^-3  cm^-2  V^-1  s^-1 ) and hole (μ_h =4.5×10^-3  cm^-2  V^-1  s^-1 ) mobility values.