Benzodithiophene based π-conjugated macrocycles: synthesis, morphology and electrochemical characterization

Abstract

A 7,8-didodecyloxybenzo[1,2-b:4,3-b′]dithiophene (BdT-Dod) containing a macrocycle was synthesized from a thiophene capped BdT-Dod comonomer through a Ti(IV) mediated McMurry reaction and characterized by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Additionally, the morphological characterization was performed by AFM and SEM to investigate the self-aggregation properties. The macrocycle underwent self-assembly in the solid state to form fibers on the Si/SiO₂ surface with a length in the μm range and a thickness of about 400 nm.