Regiochemical effects of furan substitution on the electronic properties and solid-state structure of partial fused-ring oligothiophenes.

Oligomers containing the new fused-ring heterocyclic conjugated building block thieno[3,2-b]furan were synthesized, and the effects associated with furan ring substitution into fused-ring oligothiophenes on the electronic properties and solid-state structure were assessed. A series of four-ring oligomers which vary in the degree of furan ring substitution and the regiochemistry of placement were synthesized via Stille cross-coupling and oxidative homocoupling strategies. The electronic properties of these oligomers were studied by UV-vis absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies.

Conglomerate with periodic enantiomer inclusion: a mechanism for homochirality erosion.

Two-dimensional enantiomers arising from an achiral oligomer form two-dimensional crystals that simultaneously display random mixing along one axis and periodic order along the other axis. This chirality behavior is interpreted in the contexts of kinetics and thermodynamics and considered as a mechanism for eroded enantioenrichment during recrystallization of scalemic mixtures.

1,3,6,8-tetrasubstituted pyrenes: solution-processable materials for application in organic electronics.

A series of star-shaped organic semiconductors have been synthesized from 1,3,6,8-tetrabromopyrene. The materials are soluble in common organic solvents allowing for solution processing of devices such as light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). One of the materials, 1,3,6,8-tetrakis(4-butoxyphenyl)pyrene, has been used as the active emitting layer in simple solution-processed OLEDs with deep blue emission (CIE = 0.

Neutral and oxidized triisopropylsilyl end-capped oligothienoacenes: a combined electrochemical, spectroscopic, and theoretical study.

This work presents an analysis of the structural, electrochemical, and optical properties of a family of triisopropylsilyl end-capped oligothienoacenes (TIPS-Tn-TIPS, n=4-8) by combining cyclic voltammetry, spectroscopic techniques, and quantum-chemical calculations. TIPS-Tn-TIPS compounds form stable radical cations, and dications are only obtained for the longest oligomers (n=7 and 8). Oxidation leads to the quinoidization of the conjugated backbone, from which electrons are mainly extracted.

Thiophene/thieno[3,2-b]thiophene co-oligomers: fused-ring analogues of sexithiophene.

A series of six-ring oligothiophenes containing one to three degrees of ring fusion were assembled by a combination of metal-catalyzed Stille cross-coupling and oxidative homocoupling reactions. The effect of position and extent of ring fusion on the electronic properties was studied by UV-vis absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies, and these data were interpreted in the context of TD-DFT computational analysis. Within each set of regioisomers, a slight red shift is revealed in the onset of the UV-vis absorption spectra when the fused-ring unit is located nearer to the periphery of the oligomer, indicating a narrower HOMO-LUMO gap.

FT Raman and DFT study on a series of all-anti oligothienoacenes end-capped with triisopropylsilyl groups.

Herein, we study the pi-conjugational properties of a homologous series of all-anti oligothienoacenes containing four to eight fused thiophene rings by means of FT Raman spectroscopy and DFT calculations. The theoretical analysis of the spectroscopic data provides evidence that selective enhancement of a very limited number of Raman scatterings is related to the occurrence in these oligothienoacenes of strong vibronic coupling between collective nu(C=C) stretching modes in the 1600-1300 cm(-1) region and the HOMO/LUMO frontier orbitals (HOMO=highest occupied molecular orbital; LUMO=lowest unoccupied molecular orbital). The correlation of the Raman spectroscopic data and theoretical results for these all-anti oligothienoacenes with those previously collected for a number of all-syn oligothienohelicenes gives further support to the expectation that cross-conjugation is dominant in heterohelicenes.

Oxidation of end-capped pentathienoacenes and characterization of their radical cations.

A detailed investigation of the optical and electrochemical properties of two pentathienoacene derivatives, 2,6-bis(trimethylsilyl)-alpha-pentathienoacene (TMS-T5-TMS) and 2,6-bis(triisopropylsilyl)-alpha-pentathienoacene (TIPS-T5-TIPS), as the neutral and oxidized species was performed in the temperature range of 80-300 K. The experimental solution UV/Vis and solid-state Raman spectra were interpreted by using time-dependent DFT and DFT quantum chemical calculations at the B3LYP/6-31G** level. Bond lengths, HOMO-LUMO positions, and charge distribution were also predicted by computational methods for both the neutral and oxidized states of each thienoacene.

Facile and scalable synthesis of the fused-ring heterocycles thieno[3,2-b]thiophene and thieno[3,2-b]furan.

An optimized synthetic methodology which allows for efficient and scalable access to the important fused-ring heterocycle thieno[3,2-b]thiophene and the first reported isolation of thieno[3,2-b]furan is presented. The properties of thieno[3,2-b]furan were assessed through a detailed analysis of the NMR data and an investigation of the chemical reactivity. Thieno[3,2-b]furan is chemically robust and offers good selectivity toward functionalization at the 2-position via bromination and the 5-position via deprotonation.