Recently, oxygen-equilibrated water solutions of Kolliphor EL, a well-known surfactant, have been seen to form nanomicelles with oxygen-free cores. This has prompted the successful testing of the core environment as a green medium for palladium-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross couplings. The versatility of these conditions is endorsed by several examples, including the synthesis of relevant molecular semiconductors. The reaction medium can also be recycled, opening the way for an extremely easy and green chemistry compliant methodology.

New PiNap-750M π-surfactant enables unprecedented performances in the preparation of BTBT derivatives and other organic semiconductors by Suzuki-Miyaura coupling in water and at room temperature.

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) have recently emerged as valuable candidates for the realization of aesthetically pleasing solar windows for near-zero-energy consumption buildings. The growing demand by the building-integrated photovoltaic sector is urging the development of sustainable production methods that minimize the use of polluting organic solvents and hazardous materials, while still enabling industrial-grade LSCs. Here, we introduce a new class of benzothieno-benzothiophene (BTBT) derivatives as highly efficient reabsorption-free emitters for transparent LSCs featuring high stability and a solvent-free chemical access with sustainability factor as low as 21, 10 to 50 times lower than conventional LSC emitters. By embedding our BTBT emitters in opticalgrade polymeric waveguides, we produced large-area (40 cm 3 40 cm) LSCs with optical power efficiency as high as 3% (corresponding to an optical quantum efficiency of 54%). These results represent an important advancement toward sustainable solar glazing systems for green architecture.

The molecule 2-decyl-7-phenyl-[1]benzothieno[3,2- b ][1]benzothiophene is an organic semiconductor, with outstanding properties in terms of molecular packing and its use in organic electronics. The asymmetric shape of the molecule causes a double layer crystal structure at room temperature. In this work we report its thin film growth by physical vapor deposition starting from the monolayer regime up to thick films. The films are studied in terms of their morphology, crystallographic properties, and thermal stability by atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction methods. It is found that the bulk molecular packing of the bilayer is formed at the initial thin film growth stage. After a thickness of one double layer, a transition into a new polymorph is observed which is of metastable character. The new phase represents a single layer phase; the crystal structure could be solved by a combination of X-ray diffraction and molecular dynamics simulations. The observed thin film growth is outstanding in terms of surface crystallization: the formation of a metastable phase is not associated with the initial thin film growth, since the first growth stage represents rather the bulk crystal structure of this molecule. Its formation is associated with cross-nucleation of one polymorph by another, which explains why a metastable phase can be formed on top of a thermodynamically more stable phase.