Aza-anthradithiophene-based conjugated polymers: Synthesis and field-effect transistor application

Acenedithiophenes are classical fused-ring units for constructing conjugated polymers. In this work, a new aza-anthradithiophene unit has been designed and was for the first time employed as building unit to constructing conjugated polymers for organic field-effect transistors. Two conjugated polymers based on thiophthene (P1) and benzothiadiazole (P2) as co-units were synthesized by Stille and Suzuki coupling reactions, respectively. The thermal stability, optical and electrochemical properties, and microstructure were investigated. Organic field-effect transistor devices based on conjugated polymers as semiconductor layer were also fabricated and two polymers exhibited typical hole transport characteristics with the average field-effect mobility up to 7.9 × 10−4 cm2V−1s−1 and Ion/Ioff ratios over 104.