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Using a simple -conjugated trimer, EDOT-phenylene-EDOT (where EDOT = 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), we evaluate the effect that fluorine substituents have upon changes in conformation, conjugation and oxidation potentials in -conjugated structures. These variations are assessed as a function of the fluorine atom’s propensity to feature in hydrogen and/or halogen bonding with other heteroatoms. The molecular motif was chosen because the EDOT unit presents the possibility of competing O···X or S···X non-covalent contacts (where X = H or F). Such non-bonding interactions are acknowledged to be highly influential in dictating molecular and polymer morphology and inducing changes in certain physical properties. We have studied four compounds, beginning with an unsubstituted bridging phenylene ring and then adding one, two or four fluorine units to the parent molecule. Our studies involve single crystal XRD studies, cyclic voltammetry, absorption spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations to identify the dominant non-covalent interactions and elucidate their effects on the molecules described. Experimental studies have also been carried out on the corresponding electrochemically synthesized polymers to confirm that these non-covalent interactions and their effects persist in polymers. Our findings show that hydrogen bonding and halogen bonding feature in these molecules and their corresponding polymers. ABSTRACT: Using a simple -conjugated trimer, EDOT-phenylene-EDOT (where EDOT = 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), we evaluate the effect that fluorine substituents have upon changes in conformation, conjugation and oxidation potentials in -conjugated structures. These variations are assessed as a function of the fluorine atom’s propensity to feature in hydrogen and/or halogen bonding with other heteroatoms. The molecular motif was chosen because the EDOT unit presents the possibility of competing O···X or S···X non-covalent contacts (where X = H or F). Such non-bonding interactions are acknowledged to be highly influential in dictating molecular and polymer morphology and inducing changes in certain physical properties. We have studied four compounds, beginning with an unsubstituted bridging phenylene ring and then adding one, two or four fluorine units to the parent molecule. Our studies involve single crystal XRD studies, cyclic voltammetry, absorption spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations to identify the dominant non-covalent interactions and elucidate their effects on the molecules described. Experimental studies have also been carried out on the corresponding electrochemically synthesized polymers to confirm that these non-covalent interactions and their effects persist in polymers. Our findings show that hydrogen bonding and halogen bonding feature in these molecules and their corresponding polymers.

A series of red fluorescent materials (compounds 1-4), which each contain the symmetric fluorene-thiophene-BT-thiophene-fluorene core, is presented along with their performance in solution-processed OLED devices. Extending the molecular conjugation through end-capping with additional fluorene units (compound 2), or through incorporation of donor functionalities (compounds 3 and 4) improves OLED performance relative to the parent compound 1. Notably, incorporating triphenylamine donor groups in compound 3 led to solution-processed OLED devices operating with a peak luminance of 2888 cd m −2 and a low turn-on voltage (3.6 V).

One of the most important non-radiative relaxation processes that limits the quantum yield of a fluorophore is related to aggregation of the molecules in the solid-state causing excimer quenching. To limit this quenching mechanism, the fluorophore can be contained within a well-ordered 3D system that minimises aggregation through rigid bonds and spatial separation in a defined topological construct. Herein, the synthesis, characterisation and application as a down-converter of a new luminescent 3D material (MOF-BTBMBA) that incorporates a building block based on a benzothiadiazole (BT) derivative (BTBMBA) in a metal–organic framework (MOF) is presented. Notably, the photoluminescence quantum yield and hybrid LED performance are significantly improved for the MOF-based device compared to that prepared with the free ligand, highlighting the effectiveness of the rigid scaffold arrangement.

The addition of oleylamine coated Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) nanoparticles to solutions of an organic semiconductor used to fabricate organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) has been investigated. The oligothiophene-based small molecule 5T-TTF and the polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) were each applied in the transistors with various concentrations of CZTS (5–20%). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was applied to characterise the surface morphology of the OFETs. The use of 5 and 10 wt% of the CZTS nanoparticles in 5T-TTF and P3HT solutions, respectively, appears to be a simple and effective way of improving OFET performance.

Two novel linear oligomers that can be solution-processed to form green organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are reported. Each oligomer has a donor–acceptor structure, incorporating a benzothiadiazole core with bifluorene arms attached at the 4- and 7-positions. Further electron donor behaviour is inferred from a terminal triphenylamine unit in Green 2. The resulting solution-processed OLEDs exhibited excellent performance, with a maximum luminance of 20 388 cd m−2 recorded for Green 2.

The aim of this review is to give an update on current progress in the synthesis, properties and applications of thiophene-based conjugated systems bearing tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) units. We focus mostly on the synthesis of poly- and oligothiophenes with TTF moieties fused to the thiophene units of the conjugated backbone either directly or via a dithiin ring. The electrochemical behaviour of these materials and structure–property relationships are discussed. The study is directed towards the development of a new type of organic semiconductors based on these hybrid materials for application in organic field effect transistors and solar cells.

The influence of different thiophene donor units on electrochemical and spectroscopic properties of benzothiadiazole based donor–acceptor π-conjugated organic materials is studied. Two different structure modification vectors of the donor units are being considered – one addressing the intermolecular interactions through off-conjugation side chain architecture, and the other focusing on intramolecular interactions tuned by in-conjugation substituents. Electrochemical and simultaneous in situ EPR-UV-Vis-NIR spectroelectrochemical studies of the oxidative (p-) and reductive (n-) doping processes, which are responsible for the optoelectronic properties of these materials, revealed their disparate course and dissimilar effects of redox reactions of the conjugated π-bond. While p-doping prevalent species were found to comprise intensively interacting spin bearing and spinless charge carriers, the n-doping state was found to involve only one type of negatively charged carrier, with spin carrying species being selectively generated at due cathodic potentials. No spin pairing of these negative polarons was observed with their increasing population behaving like a collection of localised charge carriers. Qualitative and quantitative comparisons between the p- and n-doping carrier populations provided independent support for the spin pairing phenomena of positive charge carriers. Steric effects of varying alkyl side chain substitution have demonstrated predominant impact on the electrochemical properties of investigated polymers, and, thereto related, stability of n-doped state, while mesomeric effects of different 3,4-ethylenechalcogenide thiophene functionalities have been found to shape the energy level related spectral properties of these polymers, with particular reference to p-doping induced charged states. These findings provide new insights into the factors requiring attention during structure tailoring of donor–acceptor assemblies for organic optoelectronic applications.

PJS thanks the Royal Society for a Wolfson Research Merit Award. Two novel triads based on a diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) central core and two 4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY) units attached by thiophene rings have been synthesised having high molar extinction coefficients. These triads were characterised and used as donor materials in small molecule, solution processable organic solar cells. Both triads were blended with PC71BM as an acceptor in different ratios by wt% and their photovoltaic properties were studied. For both the triads a modest photovoltaic performance was observed, having an efficiency of 0.65%. Moreover, in order to understand the ground and excited state properties and vertical absorption profile of DPP and BODIPY units within the triads, theoretical DFT and TDDFT calculations were performed. Publisher PDF

The authors wish to thank the EPSRC for funding. PJS thanks the Royal Society for a Wolfson Research Merit Award. Star-shaped conjugated systems with varying oligofluorene arm length and substitution patterns of the central BODIPY core have been synthesised, leading to two families of compounds, T-B1-T-B4 and Y-B1-Y-B4, with T- and Y-shaped motifs, respectively. Thermal stability, cyclic voltammetry, absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy of each member of these two families were studied in order to determine their suitability as emissive materials in photonic applications. Publisher PDF

Oligofluorene-functionalised truxenes containing perfluorohexylthiophene units at the terminal positions on the arms were synthesised, and their optical and electrochemical properties were investigated to determine the effect that the perfluorohexylthiophene unit has on the HOMO and LUMO properties of the oligomers. By synthesising a molecule with longer oligofluorene arms the effects of the perfluorohexylthiophene unit on larger oligomers was explored. The effect of steric hindrance from the perfluorohexyl chain was also evaluated by altering the position of the chain on the thiophene moiety.

A series of star‐shaped oligofluorene molecules, each containing a TPE core, have been specifically designed and produced to show effective aggregation‐induced emission (AIE). Each molecule differs either in the number of fluorene units within the arms (e.g., 1 or 4, compounds 4 and 5), or the terminal group positioned at the end of each arm (e.g., H, TMS, or TPA, compounds 4, 6, and 7). Although they are all poor emitters in solution phase they become efficient yellow‐green luminogens in the condensed state. Their AIE properties were investigated in THF/H2O mixtures, with each molecule exhibiting a clear emission enhancement at specific water contents. An all‐organic distributed feedback (DFB) laser was fabricated using compound 4 as the gain material and exhibited an average threshold energy fluence of 60 ± 6 μJ/cm2 and emission in the green region. Furthermore, piezofluorochromism studies on a thin film of this material displayed a linear dependence of the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) peak position on applied pressure, indicating potential applications as lasing‐based pressure sensors. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017, 55, 734–746

A new interface engineering method is demonstrated for the preparation of an efficient white organic light-emitting diode (WOLED) by embedding an ultrathin layer of the novel ambipolar red emissive compound 4,4-difluoro-2,6-di(4-hexylthiopen-2-yl)-1,3,5,7,8-pentamethyl-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (bThBODIPY) in the exciplex formation region. The compound shows a hole and electron mobility of 3.3 × 10-4 and 2 × 10-4 cm2 V-1 s-1, respectively, at electric fields higher than 5.3 × 105 V cm-1. The resulting WOLED exhibited a maximum luminance of 6579 cd m-2 with CIE 1931 color coordinates (0.39; 0.35). The bThBODIPY dye is also demonstrated to be an effective laser dye for a cholesteric liquid crystal (ChLC) laser. New construction of the ChLC laser, by which a flat capillary with an optically isotropic dye solution is sandwiched between two dye-free ChLC cells, provides photonic lasing at a wavelength well matched with that of a dye-doped planar ChLC cell.

Authors would like to acknowledge the EPSRC for financial support for the UP-VLC (EP/K00042X/1). PJS and IDWS also acknowledge Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Awards. We report a study of blends of semiconducting polymers as saturated red color converters to replace commercial phosphors in hybrid LEDs for visible light communication (VLC). By blending two star-shaped organic semiconductor molecules, we found a near complete energy transfer (> 90% efficiency) from the green-emitting truxene-cored compound T4BT-B to the red-emitting boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) cored materials. Furthermore, we have demonstrated the capability of these materials as fast color converters for VLC by measuring their intrinsic optical modulation bandwidth and data rate. The measured 3 dB modulation bandwidth of blends (~55 MHz) is more than 10 times higher than commercially available LED phosphors and also higher than the red-emitting BODIPY color converter alone in solution. The data rate achieved with this blend is 20 times higher than measured with a commercially available phosphor based color converter. Postprint

We report a procedure to linearly scale-up the synthesis of 2,8-bis(3,6-di-tert-butyl-9H-carbazol-9-yl)dibenzothiophene-S,S-dioxide (compound\ud 4) and 2,8-bis(10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)dibenzothiophene-S,S-dioxide (compound 5) using Buchwald-Hartwig cross-coupling reaction conditions.\ud In addition, we demonstrate a scaled-up synthesis of all non-commercially available starting materials that are required for the amination crosscoupling\ud reaction. In the present article, we provide the detailed synthetic procedures for all of the described compounds, alongside their spectral\ud characterization. This work shows the possibility to produce organic molecules for optoelectronic applications on a large scale, which facilitates\ud their implementation into real world devices.

The aim of this review is to give an update on current progress in the synthesis, properties and applications of thiophene-based conjugated systems bearing tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) units. We focus mostly on the synthesis of poly- and oligothiophenes with TTF moieties fused to the thiophene units of the conjugated backbone either directly or via a dithiin ring. The electrochemical behaviour of these materials and structure–property relationships are discussed. The study is directed towards the development of a new type of organic semiconductors based on these hybrid materials for application in organic field effect transistors and solar cells.

The novel cobalt(II) crown carbene complex 12(II) has been prepared and characterised by X-ray crystallography. This complex is reduced in a one-electron process to a cobalt(I) complex that acts as a powerful single electron donor, reducing aryl halides, including aryl chlorides and demonstrating the strong electron-enriching effect on cobalt of the crown carbene ligand. The metal ion is tightly held in a tetrahedral conformation by its enveloping crown ligand—this prevents what would otherwise be expected to be an easy oxidation to cobalt(III) under standard electrochemical conditions. Complex 12 is shown to be an effective catalyst in mediated electrochemical reductions of aryl iodides at room temperature and aryl bromides at 90 °C. The electrochemically produced catalyst [from 10 mol % of added Co(II) complex] also triggers reduction of aryl chlorides, although this seems at the limit of its reactivity. However, when the cobalt(II) complex is reduced by sodium amalgam, this affords stoichiometric quantities of the active cobalt reducing agent, which affords reduction of aryl iodides and bromides as above, but also reduces aryl chlorides at elevated temperatures.

Neutral organic electron-donor 7, formally a pyridinylidene carbene dimer, effects reductive cleavage of C-O sigma-bonds in acyloin derivatives Ar(CO)CRR'OX (X = OAc, OPiv, OBz, OMs) and this represents the first cleavage of C-O sigma-bonds by a neutral organic electron-donor. The methodology is applicable to a large array of substrates and the reduced counterparts were isolated in good to excellent yields. For certain substrates, donor 7 behaves as a base, effecting condensation reactions with some acetate ester derivatives of acyloins, leading to butenolides. The variation in reactivity among the different substrates was rationalized.

Reaction of imidazolylidene-derived enetetramine 2 with aliphatic iodides and bromides (and with aryl iodides bearing alkene-containing side-chains in the ortho-position) leads to formation of aliphatic aldehydes through an unprecedented extrusion of a one-carbon unit from the enetetramine. An intermediate 2-alkylimidazoline 24 is proposed, where the alkyl group derives from the substrate; this imidazoline undergoes further reaction in situ to afford the observed aldehydes on acidic workup. Modified substrates were designed and prepared to probe the chemistry of the alkylimidazoline adducts and provided extensive information on the chemistry of the adducts.

A series of hybrid tetrathiafulvalene-oligothiophene compounds has been synthesised, where the tetrathiafulvalene unit is fused at each side to an end-capped oligothiophene chain of varying length (terthiophene, quinquithiophene and septithiophene). Each hybrid structure (1-3) has been studied by cyclic voltammetry and triple EPR-UV-Vis-NIR spectroelectrochemistry in the case of the quinquithiophene compound (2). Comparison is made with the corresponding half-units, which lack the fulvalene core and contain just one oligothiophene chain. The highest hole mobility of quinquithiophene-TTF 2 was obtained from field effect transistors (8.61 × 10-3 cm 2 V-1 s-1); its surface morphology was characterised by tapping mode atomic force microscopy and a power conversion of 2.5% was achieved from a bulk heterojunction organic solar cell device using PC71BM as the acceptor.

The first crown-tetracarbene complex of Ni(II) has been prepared, and its crystal structure determined. The complex can be reduced by Na/Hg, with an uptake of two electrons. The reduced complex reductively cleaves arenesulfonamides, including those derived from secondary aliphatic amines, and effects Birch reduction of anthracenes as well as reductive cleavage of stilbene oxides. Computational studies show that the orbital that receives electrons upon reduction of the complex 2 is predominantly based on the crown carbene ligand and also that the HOMO of the parent complex 2 is based on the ligand.

The chemical synthesis of a novel polyfuran, poly(2,3-bis(hexylthio)-[1,4] dithiino[2,3-c]furan) (PBDF), substituted at the 2,3-positions with an S-alkylated dithiin unit, is reported. The new polymer has been characterized in terms of its electronic absorption, electrochemical, and thermal properties. Employment of the dithiin moiety provides intrinsic additional electroactivity, as well as a functional handle for substitution with alkyl groups, enhancing the processability of the polymer. The new polymer is compared with the closely related and well-established literature compounds PEDOT and PEDTT as well-studied, highly chalcogenated polythiophenes. Polyfuran with sulfur substituents in the backbone, in the form of a fused dithiin ring is prepared and characterized. The polymer can be regarded as an inverse analog of PEDOT, featuring sulfur-oxygen noncovalent contacts between repeat units that help to planarize and rigidify the polymer backbone.

A family of linear oligofluorene-BODIPY structures, containing either a ter- or quaterfluorene unit, have been prepared, in which the attachment of the oligofluorene chain to the BODIPY unit is switched between the meso- and beta-positions. Each member of this family was investigated by UV-vis absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and thermal studies (TGA and DSC) to determine their suitability as emissive layers in hybrid luminescent devices. One candidate was then successfully deployed as a down converter to convert UV to visible light.

Combining a yellow-emitting organic material with a blue-emitting inorganic light-emitting device (LED) provides a hybrid white-light LED. This approach, demonstrated by R. W. Martin, P. J. Skabara, and co-workers on page 7290, couples very efficient blue emission with the flexibility, fast modulation speed, and cost effectiveness of the organic material. For the latter, BODIPY is used as the emitter and linked to a conjugated unit designed to efficiently absorb a suitable fraction of the blue light.

A new terthiophene–diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) copolymer has been synthesised in which the central thiophene ring within the terthiophene repeat unit is attached to a fused tetrathiafulvalene (TTF). The electrochemical and absorption data of the polymer, p(DPP-TTF), are presented, and the multi-redox states are investigated by UV-vis spectroelectrochemistry. Bottom gate/bottom contact field effect transistors were fabricated from films of p(DPP-TTF) annealed at 200 °C. The material, which under these conditions forms a fibrous structure, exhibited hole mobilities of 4 ± 2 × 10−2 cm2 V−1 s−1 with an on/off ratio of 1 × 104. The transistors showed little sign of degradation over 15 days of exposure under ambient conditions, demonstrating excellent air-stability. This characteristic is attributed to the incorporation of the TTF unit into the polymer.