Indolo[2,3-b]carbazole Synthesized from a Double-Intramolecular Buchwald–Hartwig Reaction: Its Application for a Dianchor DSSC Organic Dye

Indolo[3,2-a]carbazoles as Engineered Materials for Optoelectronic Applications: Synthesis, Structural Insights, and Computational Screening

The biological and medicinal importance of indolocarbazoles has been known for the past several decades. However, in recent times, these compounds have been emerging as potential candidates for optoelectronic applications, although several challenges are associated with their synthesis. We report here a Pd(II)-catalyzed process for the synthesis of indolo[3,2-a]carbazoles. The reaction proceeded under neat conditions and in the presence of aqueous nonmetallic oxidant TBHP, and the products were purified directly after the completion of the reaction. Also, the possibility of employing the present method for reaction with gram-scale feed was investigated. A detailed single-crystal analysis of several indolo[3,2-a]carbazoles revealed how the molecular arrangement can be tuned by altering the functionalization. Finally, the developed molecules were screened computationally to assess their potential for possible use as hole transport materials (HTMs) for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).

Synthesis of Spiro Polycyclic N-Heterocycles and Indolecarbazoles via Merging Oxidative Coupling and Cascade Palladium-Catalyzed Intramolecular Oxidative Cyclization

We report a step-economic strategy for the direct synthesis of spiro polycyclic N-heterocycles and indolecarbazole-fused naphthoquinones by merging oxidative coupling and cascade palladium-catalyzed intramolecular oxidative cyclization. In the protocol, bi-indolylnaphthoquinones were first synthesized by oxidative coupling of indoles and naphthoquinones. Subsequent cascade palladium-catalyzed intramolecular oxidative cyclization of bi-indolylnaphthoquinones gave spiro polycyclic N-heterocycles and indolecarbazoles. The intramolecular oxidative cyclization approach could also be realized by the presence or absence of iron catalysts under standard conditions. This protocol is featured with moderate to excellent yields, a wide substrate scope, and divergent structures of products.

Recent synthetic strategies for the construction of functionalized carbazoles and their heterocyclic motifs enabled by Lewis acids

This article demonstrates recent innovative cascade annulation methods for preparing functionalized carbazoles and their related polyaromatic heterocyclic compounds enabled by Lewis acid catalysts. Highly substituted carbazole scaffolds were synthesized via Lewis acid mediated Friedel-Crafts arylation, electrocyclization, intramolecular cyclization, cycloaddition, C-N bond-formations, aromatization and cascade domino reactions, metal-catalyzed, iodine catalyzed reactions and multi-component reactions. This review article mainly focuses on Lewis acid-mediated recent synthetic methods to access a variety of electron-rich and electron-poor functional groups substituted carbazole frameworks in one-pot reactions. Polyaromatic carbazole and their related nitrogen-based heterocyclic compounds were found in several synthetic applications in pharma industries, energy devices, and materials sciences. Moreover, the review paper briefly summarised new synthetic strategies of carbazole preparation approaches will assist academic and pharma industries in identifying innovative protocols for producing poly-functionalized carbazoles and related highly complex heterocyclic compounds and discovering active pharmaceutical drugs or carbazole-based alkaloids and natural products.

New Molecular Design, Step-Saving Synthesis, and Applications of Indolocarbazole Core-Based Oligo(hetero)arenes

In this work, we have successfully synthesized 15 new examples (LLA01-06; LinLi01-10) of small-molecule hole-transporting materials (HTM) using the less explored indolocarbazole (ICbz) as core moiety. Different from previously reported ICbz HTMs, LinLi01-10 exhibit new molecular designs in which 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) units are inserted as crucial π-spacers and fluorine atoms are introdcued into end-group molecules. These substantially improve the materials solubility and device power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) while fabricated in perovskite solar cells (PSC). More importantly, LinLi01-10 are generated by a sustainable synthetic approach involving the use of straightforward C-H/C-Br couplings as key transformations, thus avoiding additional synthetic transformations including halogenation and borylation reactions called substrate prefunctionalizations usually required in Suzuki reactions. Most HTM molecules can be purified simply by reprecipitations instead of conducting column chromatography. In contrast to LLA01-06 without additional EDOT moieties, PSC devices using LinLi01-10 as hole-transport layers display promising PCEs of up to 17.5 %. Interestingly, PSC devices employing seven of the LinLi01-10 as hole-transport molecules, respectively, are all able to show an immediate >10 % PCE (t=0) without any device oxidation/aging process that is necessary for the commercial spiro-OMeTAD based PSCs.

Construction of heterocycle-fused tetrahydrocarbazoles through a formal [3 + 3]-annulation of 2-indolylmethanols with para-quinone methides

A metal-free approach for the synthesis of tetrahydroindolo[2,3-b]carbazoles has been developed through an acid-mediated one-pot [3 + 3]-annulation of 2-indolylmethanols and 3-indolyl-substituted para-quinone methides. This operationally simple protocol allowed us to prepare many unsymmetrical tetrahydroindolo[2,3-b]carbazoles in good to excellent yields with a broad substrate scope. This concept was also elaborated to the synthesis of tetrahydrothieno[2,3-b]carbazoles and tetrahydrothieno[3,2-b]carbazoles.

Cu-Catalyzed Ullmann-Type Double C-N Coupling Approach to 5-Aryl-5H-indolizino[3,2-b]indoles

A modular approach to a polyfunctionalized 5H-indolizino[3,2-b]indole, an indolizine-indole fused system, was achieved from readily available pyridine-2-acetonitrile, 2-bromobenzaldehyde, and TMSCN via the strategic combination of a one-pot three-component assembly and Cu-catalyzed Ullmann-type double C-N coupling reactions through which five new bonds (two C-C and three C-N) were formed in two steps.

Functional Organic Materials for Photovoltaics: The Synthesis as a Tool for Managing Properties for Solid State Applications

The continuous increase in the global energy demand deeply impacts the environment. Consequently, the research is moving towards more sustainable forms of energy production, storage and saving. Suitable technologies and materials are fundamental to win the challenge towards a greener and more eco-friendly society. Organic π-conjugated materials, including small molecules, oligomers and polymers are a wide and versatile class of functional materials with great potentiality, as they can be used as active matrixes in the fabrication of lightweight, flexible, cheap and large area devices. Their chemical and physical properties, both at a molecular level and mainly in the solid state, are a result of many factors, strictly related to the conjugated structure and functional groups on the backbone, which control the intermolecular forces driving solid state aggregations. The synthesis, through the molecular design, the choice of conjugated backbone and functionalization, represents the first and most powerful tool for finely tuning the chemico-physical properties of organic materials tailored for specific applications. In the present review, we report an overview of our works focused on synthetic methodologies, characterization, structure-properties correlation studies and applications of organic materials designed for energy-involving solid-state applications, organic photovoltaics in particular. The impact of functionalization on electro-optical properties and performance in device are discussed, also in relation to the specific applications.

Double anchor indolo[3,2-b]indole-derived metal-free dyes with extra electron donors as efficient sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells

New di-acceptors organic dye with extra electron donors shows an enhanced PCE of 7.86% comparing to parent one.

Benzannulation strategies for the synthesis of carbazoles, indolocarbazoles, benzocarbazoles, and carbolines

This review presents a critical and authoritative analysis of several exciting benzannulation approaches developed in the past decade for the construction of carbazoles, indolocarbazoles, benzocarbazoles, and carbolines.

Self-Assembly by Coordination with Organic Antenna Chromophores for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

The development of new sensitizers and new sensitization methods is one of the important means to enhance the conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs); the ultimate goal is to broaden the spectral response of dyes, reduce electron recombination, and suppress dye aggregation. In this study, we have developed a series of new self-assembled dyes and applied them in DSSCs. We prepared two organic antenna chromophores S1 and S2 and coordinated them with two acceptors A1 and A2 via zinc to construct A-Zn-S series self-assembled dyes. This method is very simple and feasible and can avoid the complex synthesis steps of traditional dyes; the results show that the light-harvesting ability of devices can be improved and charge recombination can be reduced by adjusting the structures of the antenna chromophores and acceptors. The device with A2-Zn-S1 gave a power conversion efficiency of 4.25%, which was higher than those with A1-Zn-S1 (3.88%), A1-Zn-S2 (3.21%), and A2-Zn-S2 (3.52%); the main reason for this is that the different coordination combinations between the antenna chromophore and the acceptor show great differences in V_oc and J_sc. The device based on A2-Zn-S1 showed a high V_oc of 632 mV and a high J_sc of 9.54 mA cm^-2; one reason for this is that S1 has better spectral responsiveness and another reason is that A2 has better steric resistance that effectively reduces charge recombination. Besides, IR spectra indicate that these self-assembled dyes anchored on a TiO₂ surface by bicarboxyl anchoring groups are also very beneficial for improving the performance of dyes.

Synthesis of near-infrared absorbing and fluorescing thiophene-fused BODIPY dyes with strong electron-donating groups and their application in dye-sensitised solar cells

Thiophene-fused BODIPY dyes with two diethylaminophenyl groups as strong donors demonstrated near-infrared (NIR) absorption (λ_max: 783–812 nm, ε: 119 500–145 900) and fluorescence (F_max: 862–916 nm, Φ_f: 0.02–0.12) in dichloromethane.

Effect of donor modification on the photo-physical and photo-voltaic properties of N-alkyl/aryl amine based chromophores

Six push–pull sensitizers (MD1 to MD6) having rhodanine-3-acetic acid acting as an electron withdrawing group and N-alkyl/aryl amine as a donor moiety were planned and prepared to rationalize the influence of donor alteration on absorption/emission properties and photon to current conversion efficiency (η).

Chemistry and Properties of Indolocarbazoles

The indolocarbazoles are an important class of nitrogen heterocycles which has evolved significantly in recent years, with numerous studies focusing on their diverse biological effects, or targeting new materials with potential applications in organic electronics. This review aims at providing a broad survey of the chemistry and properties of indolocarbazoles from an interdisciplinary point of view, with particular emphasis on practical synthetic aspects, as well as certain topics which have not been previously accounted for in detail, such as the occurrence, formation, biological activities, and metabolism of indolo[3,2- b]carbazoles. The literature of the past decade forms the basis of the text, which is further supplemented with older key references.

Tuning the Photophysical and Electroluminescence Properties in Asymmetrically Tetrasubstituted Bipolar Carbazoles by Functional Group Disposition

Carbazoles decorated with both donor and acceptor fragments offer a classical way to optimize bipolar functional properties. In this work, a series of carbazoles featuring triphenylamine donors and cyano acceptors are synthesized and their structure-property relationship is studied. The effects of connectivity and the chromophore number density on photophysical and electroluminescence properties are investigated. The position of the triphenylamine donor on the 3,6-dicyanocarbazole nucleus significantly affected the photophysical and electroluminescence properties. The dye possessing triphenylamine on C2 and C7 displayed a red shift in absorption when compared with the structural analogue with triphenylamine tethered to C1 and C8. The emission wavelength of the dyes are tunable from blue to green, by altering the position of triphenylamine and cyano substituents. All of the dyes exhibited positive solvatochromism in emission, attributable to the photoinduced intramolecular charge transfer from the triphenylamine donor to the cyano acceptor. However, the extent of charge transfer and hybridization of local and charge-transfer-excited states is highly dependent on the position of triphenylamine and cyano groups on the carbazole nucleus. Dyes containing cyano substituents at C2 and C7 showed a prolonged excited state lifetime, broad emission, and large Stokes shifts, indicating the presence of a higher charge transfer component in the excited state. The dyes displayed exceptional thermal stability with the onset decomposition temperature (10% weight loss) > 350 °C. Electrochemical measurements revealed low oxidation potential for dyes containing triphenylamine at C3 and/or C6. Addition of a cyano acceptor on carbazole led to the stabilization of lowest unoccupied molecular orbital. Furthermore, the materials were tested as emitting dopants in solution-processable multilayer organic light emitting diodes and found to display deep-blue/sky-blue electroluminescence with external quantum efficiency as high as 6.5% for a deep-blue emitter (CIE y ∼ 0.06).

Structure-efficiency relationship of newly synthesized 4-substituted donor–π–acceptor coumarins for dye-sensitized solar cells

Substitution at the 4-position of coumarin alters the photophysical, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties of the dyes.

Unconventional Molecular Design Approach of High-Efficiency Deep Blue Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Emitters Using Indolocarbazole as an Acceptor

Unconventional blue thermally activated delayed fluorescent emitters having electron-donating type indolocarbazole as an acceptor were developed by attaching carbazolylcarbazole or acridine donors to the indolocarbazole acceptor. Three compounds were derived from the indolocarbazole acceptor. The indolocarbazole-acridine combined products showed efficient delayed fluorescent behavior and a high quantum efficiency of 19.5% with a color coordinate of (0.15, 0.16) when they were evaluated as thermally activated delayed fluorescent emitters in deep blue fluorescent devices. This is the first demonstration of the use of electron-donating carbazole-derived moieties as efficient acceptor units of blue thermally activated delayed fluorescent emitters.

Applications of Palladium-Catalyzed C-N Cross-Coupling Reactions

Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions that form C–N bonds have become useful methods to synthesize anilines and aniline derivatives, an important class of compounds throughout chemical research. A key factor in the widespread adoption of these methods has been the continued development of reliable and versatile catalysts that function under operationally simple, user-friendly conditions. This review provides an overview of Pd-catalyzed N-arylation reactions found in both basic and applied chemical research from 2008 to the present. Selected examples of C–N cross-coupling reactions between nine classes of nitrogen-based coupling partners and (pseudo)aryl halides are described for the synthesis of heterocycles, medicinally relevant compounds, natural products, organic materials, and catalysts.

Connecting Direct C-H Arylation Reactions with Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: A Shortcut to D-A-π-A Organic Dyes

A step-economical synthetic strategy is developed to target thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione (TPD)-based D-A-π-A organic dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Through sequential Pd-catalyzed direct C-H (hetero)arylation reaction, synthesis of the push-pull-type small molecules is reduced from the traditional six steps to two steps. In this report, we focus on the optimization of the key C-H monoarylation of TPD by screening ligands, acid additives, bases, and solvents. The reaction proves versatile toward new D-A-π-A organic dyes with a variety of different donor groups, and several derivatives are efficiently prepared under optimum reaction conditions. The sensitive aldehyde functionality that is a required intermediate for conversion into anchoring groups for TiO2 is well tolerated. Based on our synthetic study, DSSCs are fabricated and characterized using two designed sensitizers. The photovoltaic characterization of the devices affords an open-circuit voltage of 0.60-0.69 V, a short-circuit current density of 10.85-11.07 mA cm(-2), and a fill factor of 69.9-70.8 %, which corresponds to an overall power conversion efficiency of 4.61-5.33 %.

Porphyrin Sensitizers Bearing a Pyridine-Type Anchoring Group for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Three novel efficient donor-acceptor porphyrins, MH1-MH3, with a pyridine-type acceptor and anchoring group were synthesized and their optical, electrochemical, and photovoltaic properties investigated. Replacing the commonly used 4-carboxyphenyl anchoring group with 2-carboxypyridine, 2-pyridone, and pyridine did not significantly change the absorption and electrochemical properties of the porphyrin dyes. These new porphyrin dyes MH show power conversion efficiencies of 8.3%, 8.5%, and 8.2%, which are comparable to that of the benchmark YD2-o-C8 (η=8.25%) under similar conditions. It was demonstrated that 2-carboxypyridine is an efficient and stable anchoring group as MH1 and showed better cell performance and long-term stability than YD2-o-C8 under light soaking conditions.

Direct synthesis of N-H carbazoles via iridium(III)-catalyzed intramolecular C-H amination

The iridium-catalyzed dehydrogenative cyclization of 2-aminobiphenyls proceeds smoothly in the presence of a copper cocatalyst under air as a terminal oxidant through intramolecular direct C-H amination to produce N-H carbazoles. A similar iridium/copper system can also catalyze the unprecedented dimerization reaction of 2-aminobiphenyl involving 2-fold C-H/N-H couplings.

Eugenic metal-free sensitizers with double anchors for high performance dye-sensitized solar cells

A series of new phenothiazine-based dyes (HL5-HL7) with double acceptors/anchors have been synthesized and used as the sensitizers for highly efficient dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Among them, the HL7-based cell exhibits the best efficiency of 8.32% exceeding the N719-based cell (7.35%) by ∼13%.

Novel heteroleptic Ru(ii) complexes: synthesis, characterization and application in dye-sensitized solar cells

Photovoltaic efficiencies of 6–8%, comparable with N719, were obtained with six novel Ru(ii) heteroleptic dyes.