Alternating copolysiloxane with both electron donor terthiophene and electron acceptor perylenediimide derivative pendants (PTSi-alt-PDISi) is synthesized successfully. The polymer exhibits high decomposition and glass transition temperatures, good fi lm-forming ability, and high morphological stability. The estimated HOMO and LUMO energy levels of PTSi-alt-PDISi are -5.77 and -3.90 eV, respectively. The fabricated memory device with the confi guration of ITO/PTSi-alt-PDISi/Au(Al) shows nonvolatile write-once-readmany-times (WORM) memory characteristics. Its turn-on threshold voltage is 1.7 V, while its ON/OFF current density ratio is around 10 4 in ambient atmosphere. The well-defi ned memory property of PTSi-alt-PDISi is attributed to the transition of the pendant terthiophene and perylenediimide groups from the disoriented state to the ordered face-to-face conformation at the threshold voltage and the charge transfer interaction between pendent terthiophene donor and perylenediimide acceptor moieties, which are confi rmed by XRD patterns and fl uorescence emission measurement. This suggests that the new donor-acceptor polysiloxanes have potential applications in the fi eld of memory devices.

A series of symmetric and asymmetric 1,6,7,12-tetrachloroperylene bisimides (PBICls) were synthesized and modified by siloxane substituents at the imide nitrogen atom. Siloxane substitutions do not apparently affect the electronic properties of PBICIs as demonstrated by CV experiments. They display both thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystalline behaviors. The effect of different siloxane substituents on their liquid crystal structures was investigated in detail. Small angle X-ray scattering indicates that PBICls adopt hexagonal columnar packing in thermotropic liquid crystals. In addition, PBICls exhibit good optical properties, good solubility and film-forming ability. Thus the oriented films of PBICl liquid crystals could be easily fabricated by mechanical shear, which show anisotropic properties in UV-vis absorption spectra.

Correction for ‘Synthesis and properties of siloxane modified perylene bisimide discotic liquid crystals’ by Tingjie Zhang et al., Soft Matter, 2013, 9, 10739–10745, https://doi.org/10.1039/C3SM52054D.