Photostable Helical Polyfurans.

This report describes the design and synthesis of a new class of polyfurans bearing ester side chains. The macromolecules can be synthesized using catalyst-transfer polycondensation, providing precise control over molecular weight and molecular weight distribution. Such obtained furan ester polymers are significantly more photostable than their alkyl analogues owing to the electron-withdrawing nature of the attached subunit. Most interestingly, they spontaneously fold into a compact π-stacked helix, yielding a complex multilayer cylindrical nanoparticle with a hollow, rigid, conjugated core composed of the polyfuran backbone and a soft, insulating outer layer formed by the ester side chains. The length of polymer side chains dictates the outer diameter of such nanoparticles, which for the hexyl ester groups used in the present study is equal to ∼2.3 nm. The inner cavity of the conjugated core is lined with oxygen atoms, which set its effective diameter to 0.4 nm. Furthermore, installation of bulkier, branched chiral ester side chains on the repeat unit yields structures that, upon change of solvent, can reversibly transition between an ordered chiral helical folded and disordered unfolded state.

Systematic Investigation of Benzodithiophene-Benzothiadiazole Isomers for Organic Photovoltaics.

Two new donor-acceptor small molecules based on benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene (BDT) and benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole (BT) were designed and synthesized. Small molecules 4,4'-[(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diyl)bis(2,2'-bithiophene)-5,5'-diyl]bis(benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole) (BDT-TT-BT) and 4,4'-(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diyl)bis[7-(2,2'-bithiophene-5-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole] (BDT-BT-TT) are structural isomers with the 2,2-bithiophene unit placed either between the BDT and BT units or at the end of the BT units. This work is targeted toward finding the effect of structural variation on optoelectronic properties, morphology, and photovoltaic performance. On the basis of theoretical calculations, the molecular geometry and energy levels are different for these two molecules when the position of the 2,2-bithiophene unit is changed. Optical and electrochemical properties of these two small molecules were characterized using UV-vis and cyclic voltammetry. The results showed that BDT-BT-TT has broader absorption and an elevated HOMO energy level when compared with those of BDT-TT-BT. The performance of these two isomers in solar cell devices was tested by blending with [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM). Power conversion efficiencies as high as 3.22 and 3.71% were obtained in conventional solar cell structures for BDT-TT-BT and BDT-BT-TT, respectively. The morphology was studied using grazing incident wide-angle X-ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy, which revealed different phase separations of these two molecules when blended with PC71BM.

Conjugated Polymers with Repeated Sequences of Group 16 Heterocycles Synthesized through Catalyst-Transfer Polycondensation.

Periodic π-conjugated polymers of the group 16 heterocycles (furan, thiophene, and selenophene) were synthesized with controlled chain lengths and relatively low dispersities using catalyst-transfer polycondensation. The optical gap and redox potentials of these copolymers were fine-tuned by altering the heterocycle sequence, and atomic force microscopy revealed nanofibrillar morphologies for all the materials. Grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering of the thiophene-selenophene copolymers indicated that the π-stacking distance increased with incorporation of the larger heteroatom (from ∼3.7-4.0 Å), while the lamellar spacing decreased (from ∼15.8-15.2 Å). The study also revealed that periodic sequences allow electronic properties to be tuned while retaining nanofibrillar morphologies similar to those observed for poly(3-hexylthiophene).

Synthesis of Polyfuran and Thiophene-Furan Alternating Copolymers Using Catalyst-Transfer Polycondensation.

There is intense interest in the rational design of semiconducting materials to improve organic electronics. Furan is a particularly attractive monomer for building biorenewable and biodegradable π-conjugated frameworks. In this report, regioregular head-to-tail and head-to-head poly(3-hexylfuran) were synthesized using chain-growth polycondensation. The resultant polyfurans have relatively low molecular weights but also low dispersities. The head-to-head polyfuran adopted a nearly identical coplanar backbone conformation as its head-to-tail analog in the solid state, as determined by UV-visible spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. Extensive aggregation of the furan homopolymer during polymerization led to the investigation of an alternating furan-thiophene copolymer, confirming that furyl-based monomers can polymerize in a chain-growth manner. All of the synthesized polymers are sensitive when exposed to both oxygen and light.