Issue 7, 2022

Tuning the antiaromatic character and charge transport of pentalene-based antiaromatic compounds by substitution

Abstract

Understanding the structure–property relationships in antiaromatic molecules is crucial for controlling their electronic properties and designing new organic optoelectronic materials. Here we report the design, synthesis, and characterization of three new antiaromatic molecules (Pn, n = 1–4) based on the pentalene (P) antiaromatic core, to investigate how electron-donating and electron-accepting substituents affect P1–P4 properties. As expected, the optical, HOMO and LUMO energy levels and electronic structure are greatly modulated by core substitution. Compared to the unsubstituted compound (P1), P3 and P4 containing strong electron-withdrawing units reduced antiaromaticity as assessed by nucleus-independent chemical shift (NICS) calculations compared with P2, which is functionalized with strong electron-donating units, showing that substitution strongly tunes local antiaromaticity. Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) fabricated using these materials indicate that P2 has an average hole mobility of ∼10−4 cm2 V−1 s−1 while P3 has an average electron mobility of up to 0.03 cm2 V−1 s−1, versus FET-inactive P1. Therefore, introduction of strong π-extended electron-withdrawing or electron-donating substituents onto an antiaromatic core is an effective strategy to switch-on charge transport capacity.

Graphical abstract: Tuning the antiaromatic character and charge transport of pentalene-based antiaromatic compounds by substitution

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
06 juil. 2021
Accepted
25 sept. 2021
First published
27 sept. 2021

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022,10, 2724-2731

Author version available

Tuning the antiaromatic character and charge transport of pentalene-based antiaromatic compounds by substitution

J. Wu, Y. Chen, J. Liu, Z. Pang, G. Li, Z. Lu, Y. Huang, A. Facchetti and T. J. Marks, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022, 10, 2724 DOI: 10.1039/D1TC03156B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements