Conjugated Random Donor–Acceptor Copolymers of [1]Benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene and Diketopyrrolopyrrole Units for High Performance Polymeric Semiconductor Applications

Synthesis, characterization, photophysical properties, and computational studies on N-hexylphenothiazine/cyanopyridine based π-conjugated copolymers

In this paper, π-conjugated copolymers, namely N-hexylphenothiazine/cyanopyridine/phenyl/benzothiadiazole, N-hexylphenothiazine/cyanopyridine/phenyl/9,9-dihexylfluorene, and N-hexylphenothiazine/cyanopyridine/phenyl/9,9-diethylhexylfluorene were readily synthesized via Pd-catalyzed Suzuki cross-coupling reaction. The polymer structures and their photophysical properties were characterized by elemental analysis, 1H NMR, GPC, TGA, XRD, UV-vis absorption and PL spectroscopy measurements. The coupling agent effect on photophysical properties of copolymers was investigated to rationally design polymers with particular physical properties to be employed in optoelectronic devices. The UV-vis absorption spectroscopy of copolymers showed λmax at a range of ∼334–474 nm and red-shifted in their films to a range of ∼342–381 nm. These copolymers displayed highly intense fluorescence in their solutions and films. The PL spectra of copolymers indicated red and near-infrared light, rendering them a prospect for being red and near-infrared light-emitting materials for PLEDs. XRD analysis demonstrated a d-spacing range of ∼3.79–4.32 Å, reflecting π-π stacking and some degree of crystallinity in some polymers, and only P1 and P2 showed peaks in the small-angle region, indicating lamellar structures. To understand the relationship between molecular structures of target materials and their photophysical and photovoltaic properties, density functional theory (DFT) and its time-dependent form (TD-DFT) were employed.

The Effects of Side Chains on the Charge Mobilities and Functionalities of Semiconducting Conjugated Polymers beyond Solubilities

Recent decades have witnessed the rapid development of semiconducting polymers in terms of high charge mobilities and applications in transistors. Significant efforts have been made to develop various conjugated frameworks and linkers. However, studies are increasingly demonstrating that the side chains of semiconducting polymers can significantly affect interchain packing, thin film crystallinity, and thus semiconducting performance. Ways to modify the side alkyl chains to improve the interchain packing order and charge mobilities for conjugated polymers are first discussed. It is shown that modifying the branching chains by moving the branching points away from the backbones can boost the charge mobilities, which can also be improved through partially replacing branching chains with linear ones. Second, the effects of side chains with heteroatoms and functional groups are discussed. The siloxane-terminated side chains are utilized to enhance the semiconducting properties. The fluorinated alkyl chains are beneficial for improving both charge mobility and air stability. Incorporating H bonding group side chains can improve thin film crystallinities and boost charge mobilities. Notably, incorporating functional groups (e.g., glycol, tetrathiafulvalene, and thymine) into side chains can improve the selectivity of field-effect transistor (FET)-based sensors, while photochromic group containing side chains in conjugated polymers result in photoresponsive semiconductors and optically tunable FETs.

An A-D-A'-D-A Conjugated Molecule Entailing Diazapentalene Unit for an n-Type Organic Semiconductor

Conjugated molecules with low lying LUMO levels are demanding for the development of air stable n-type organic semiconductors. In this paper, we report a new A-D-A'-D-A conjugated molecule (DAPDCV) entailing diazapentalene (DAP) and dicyanovinylene groups as electron accepting units. Both theoretical and electrochemical studies manifest that the incorporation of DAP unit in the conjugated molecule can effectively lower the LUMO energy level. Accordingly, thin film of DAPDCV shows n-type semiconducting behavior with electron mobility up to 0.16 cm² ⋅V^-1 ⋅s^-1 after thermal annealing under N₂ atmosphere. Moreover, thin film of DAPDCV also shows stable n-type transporting property in air with mobility reaching 0.078 cm² ⋅V^-1 ⋅s^-1 .

Charge Carrier Polarity Modulation in Diketopyrrolopyrrole-Based Low Band Gap Semiconductors by Terminal Functionalization

Organic semiconductors with variable charge carrier polarity are required for optoelectronic applications. Herein, we report the synthesis of three novel diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based D-A molecules having three different terminal groups (amide, ester, and dicyano) and study their electronic properties. An increase in electron acceptor strength from amide to dicyano leads to a bathochromic shift in absorption. Photoconductivity and field effect transistor (FET) measurements confirmed that a small increase in acceptor strength can result in a large change in the charge transport properties from p-type to n-type. The molecule with an amide group, DPP-amide, exhibited a moderate p-type mobility (1.3 × 10^-2 cm² V^-1 s^-1), whereas good n-type mobilities were observed for molecules with an ester moiety, DPP-ester (1.5 × 10^-2 cm² V^-1 s^-1), and with a dicyano group, DPP-DCV (1 × 10^-2 cm² V^-1 s^-1). The terminal functional group modification approach presented here is a simple and efficient method to alter the charge carrier polarity of organic semiconductors.

Di- and tetramethoxy benzothienobenzothiophenes: substitution position effects on the intermolecular interactions, crystal packing and transistor properties

The relationship between the structure and transistor properties of novel benzothienobenzothiophene (BTBT) derivatives with 2,3-dimethoxy and 2,3,7,8-tetramethoxy groups was investigated.

Organic n-Channel Transistors Based on [1]Benzothieno[3,2- b]benzothiophene-Rylene Diimide Donor-Acceptor Conjugated Polymers

Improving the charge-carrier mobility of conjugated polymers is important for developing high-performance, solution-processed optoelectronic devices. Although [1]benzothieno[3,2- b]benzothiophene (BTBT) has been frequently used as a high-performance p-type small molecular semiconductor and employed a few times as a building block for p-type conjugated polymers, it has never been explored as a donor moiety for high-performance n-type conjugated polymers. Here, BTBT has been conjugated with either n-type perylene diimide (PDI) or naphthalene diimide (NDI) units to generate a donor-acceptor copolymer backbone, for the first time. Charge-transport measurements of organic field-effect transistors show n-type dominant behaviors, with the electron mobility reaching ∼0.11 cm² V^-1 s^-1 for PDI-BTBT and ∼0.050 cm² V^-1 s^-1 for NDI-BTBT. The PDI-BTBT mobility value is one of the highest among the PDI-containing polymers. The high π-π stacking propensity of BTBT significantly improves the charge-carrier mobility in these polymers, as supported by atomic force microscopy and grazing incidence X-ray diffraction analyses. Phototransistor applications of these polymers in the n-type mode show highly sensitive photoresponses. Our findings demonstrate that incorporation of the BTBT donor unit within the rylene diimide acceptor-based conjugated polymers can improve the molecular ordering and electron mobility.

Regulating Molecular Aggregations of Polymers via Ternary Copolymerization Strategy for Efficient Solar Cells

For many high-performance photovoltaic materials in polymer solar cells (PSCs), the active layers usually need to be spin-coated at high temperature due to the strong intermolecular aggregation of donor polymers, which is unfavorable in device repeatability and large-scale PSC printing. In this work, we adopted a ternary copolymerization strategy to regulate polymer solubility and molecular aggregation. A series of D-A₁-D-A₂ random polymers based on different acceptors, strong electron-withdrawing unit ester substituted thieno[3,4-b]thiophene (TT-E), and highly planar dithiazole linked TT-E (DTzTT) were constructed to realize the regulation of molecular aggregation and simplification of device fabrication. The results showed that as the relative proportion of TT-E segment in the backbone increased, the absorption evidently red-shifted with a gradually decreased aggregation in solution, eventually leading to the active layers that can be fabricated at low temperature. Furthermore, due to the excellent phase separation and low recombination, the optimized solar cells based on the terpolymer P1 containing 30% of TT-E segment exhibit high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.09% with a significantly enhanced fill factor up to 72.86%. Encouragingly, the photovoltaic performance is insensitive to the fabrication temperature of the active layer, and it still could maintain high PCE of 8.82%, even at room temperature. This work not only develops the highly efficient photovoltaic materials for low temperature processed PSCs through ternary copolymerization strategy but also preliminarily constructs the relationship between aggregation and photovoltaic performance.

Diketopyrrolopyrrole-Based Conjugated Polymer Entailing Triethylene Glycols as Side Chains with High Thin-Film Charge Mobility without Post-Treatments

Side chain engineering of conjugated donor-acceptor polymers is a new way to manipulate their optoelectronic properties. Two new diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-terthiophene-based conjugated polymers PDPP3T-1 and PDPP3T-2, with both hydrophilic triethylene glycol (TEG) and hydrophobic alkyl chains, are reported. It is demonstrated that the incorporation of TEG chains has a significant effect on the interchain packing and thin-film morphology with noticeable effect on charge transport. Polymer chains of PDPP3T-1 in which TEG chains are uniformly distributed can self-assemble spontaneously into a more ordered thin film. As a result, the thin film of PDPP3T-1 exhibits high saturated hole mobility up to 2.6 cm2 V-1 s-1 without any post-treatment. This is superior to those of PDPP3T with just alkyl chains and PDPP3T-2. Moreover, the respective field effect transistors made of PDPP3T-1 can be utilized for sensing ethanol vapor with high sensitivity (down to 100 ppb) and good selectivity.

Synthesis and characterization of semiaromatic polyamides comprising benzofurobenzofuran repeating units

Extended π-conjugated segments such as benzofurobenzofuran can be included into polyamides with high glass transition temperatures.