Quinoxaline derivatives with broadened absorption patterns

Quinoxaline-based semiconducting materials are currently of high interest in the field of organic photovoltaics. The number of structural variations employed has been, however, quite limited to date. In this paper we report on the synthesis of a series of quinoxaline monomers and triads with improved optical features. This was achieved by using conjugated linkers, i.e. ethenyl, butadienyl and/or aryl groups, to graft the solubilizing alkyl side chains onto the central quinoxaline core. The influence of the appended groups on the light-harvesting properties of the materials is briefly discussed.