journal article·2024-05

General room-temperature Suzuki–Miyaura polymerization for organic electronics

Haigen Xiong, Qijie Lin, Yu Lu, Ding Zheng, Yawen Li, Song Wang, Wenbin Xie, Congqi Li, Xin Zhang, Yuze Lin, Zhi-Xiang Wang, Qinqin Shi, Tobin J. Marks, Hui Huang

Nature Materials· Volume 23· Issue 5
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Abstract

π-Conjugated polymers (CPs) have broad applications in high-performance optoelectronics, energy storage, sensors and biomedicine. However, developing green and efficient methods to precisely synthesize alternating CP structures on a large scale remains challenging and critical for their industrialization. Here a room-temperature, scalable and homogeneous Suzuki-Miyaura-type polymerization reaction is developed with broad generality validated for 24 CPs including donor-donor, donor-acceptor and acceptor-acceptor connectivities, yielding device-quality polymers with high molecular masses. Furthermore, the polymerization protocol significantly reduces homocoupling structural defects, yielding more structurally regular and higher-performance electronic materials and optoelectronic devices than conventional thermally activated polymerizations. Experimental and theoretical studies reveal that a borate transmetalation process plays a key role in suppressing protodeboronation, which is critical for large-scale structural regularity. Thus, these results provide a general polymerization tool for the scalable production of device-quality CPs with alternating structural regularity.
Source: europepmc · Quality: candidate unverified · Source record ↗

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Conducting polymers and applications · Organoboron and organosilicon chemistry · Catalytic Cross-Coupling Reactions

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