A Highly Conjugated p- and n-Type Polythiophenoazomethine: Synthesis, Spectroscopic, and Electrochemical Investigation

摘要

Conjugated polymers are of great interest because of their optical, emitting, and conducting properties that are ideal for electronic applications, including light-emitting diodes, molecular wires, flexible displays, and/or low-power consumption products. Because of these potential applications, great effort has focused on the synthesis of these and other new compounds with enhanced properties. Current synthetic methods are however challenging and require anhydrous and oxygen-free conditions for Suzuki or Wittig coupling methods. These protocols are further complicated with difficult purifications, and the resulting polymers are sporadically contaminated with trace metals or other byproducts, resulting in poor batch-to-batch reproducibility. Electropolymerization additionally suffers from low to moderate yields and offers little control over the molecular weight. Furthermore, the regioselectivity of the resulting polymer cannot be regulated electrochemically, which affects the degree of conjugation and limits the range of properties of the resulting polymer, making it unsuitable for functional devices. Therefore, simple, high-yielding synthetic protocols for the preparation of conjugated thiophene polymer with desired properties are quite rare.