Spontaneous polymerization of benzofulvene monomers bearing a 4-Pyri- dylacetylene substituent in different positions of the benzofulvene scaffold

Two benzofulvene derivatives bearing a 4-pyridylacetylene substituent in different positions (i. e. 2 and 6) of the benzofulvene scaffold are designed and synthesized to evaluate the effects on the spontaneous solid-state polymerization of the presence of the same substituent in two different key positions of the 3-phenylbenzoful-vene moiety. Both the benzofulvene derivatives showed the tendency to polymerize spontaneously in the consequence of solvent removal under reduced pressure without the addition of catalysts or initiators. The macromolecular structure of the stemming polymeric materials was investigated by NMR spectroscopy and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Both NMR and MALDI-TOF studies confirmed the polymeric nature of the materials and suggested for the polybenzofulvene derivative bearing the 4-pyridylacetylene substituent in po-sitions 6 a higher structural homogeneity with respect to the one bearing the same substituent in position 2. The photophysical characterization of the most homogeneous polybenzofulvene derivative led to the discovery of its outstanding hole mobility value, which was found to be around one order of magnitude higher than that pre-viously measured for two oligothiophene-based polybenzofulvene derivatives and almost two orders of magni-tude higher than that of poly(vinylcarbazole), commonly used as hole-transporter matrix. This result places the new polybenzofulvene derivative in an outstanding position as a promising material for field-effect transistor (FET) device applications.

Automated summary

Two benzofulvene derivatives with a 4-pyridylacetylene substituent in different positions (2 and 6) were synthesized and found to spontaneously polymerize in the absence of catalysts or initiators. NMR and MALDI-TOF studies confirmed the polymeric nature of the materials and revealed that the derivative with the substituent in position 6 exhibited higher structural homogeneity compared to the one with the substituent in position 2. The most homogeneous polybenzofulvene derivative demonstrated outstanding hole mobility, making it a promising material for FET device applications.