STRUCTURE-PROPERTIES RELASHIONSHIPS IN PUSH-PULL “SPIDER-LIKE” OLIGOTHIOPHENES

A deep investigation has been recently carried out in our laboratories on the impact of the beta-substitution of an oligothiophene backbone with thiophenes and bitiophenes units, in order to accede to new families of compounds with enhanced optical properties.1,2 The aim of the present research project was to employ an electron-deficient unit (fluorenone, cyclopentabithiophenone, acridone) as the scaffold for the multiple connection of branches of thiophene-based electron-donor system in order to develop a wide class of new compounds endowed with tunable opto-electronic and physico-chemical properties. The main improvement achieved with this series is related to the solubility and air-stability of the new materials, which are fundamental requirements for their processability. The correlation parameters between the optoelectronic properties of the new compounds the nature of the core are discussed.