Conventional semiconducting polymer synthesis typically involves transition metal-mediated coupling reactions that link aromatic units with single bonds along the backbone. Rotation around these bonds contributes to conformational and energetic disorder and therefore potentially limits charge delocalisation, whereas the use of transition metals presents difficulties for sustainability and application in biological environments. Here we show that a simple aldol condensation reaction can prepare polymers where double bonds lock-in a rigid backbone conformation, thus eliminating free rotation along the conjugated backbone. This polymerisation route requires neither organometallic monomers nor transition metal catalysts and offers a reliable design strategy to facilitate delocalisation of frontier molecular orbitals, elimination of energetic disorder arising from rotational torsion and allowing closer interchain electronic coupling. These characteristics are desirable for high charge carrier mobilities. Our polymers with a high electron affinity display long wavelength NIR absorption with air stable electron transport in solution processed organic thin film transistors.

The alignment of organic semiconductors (OSCs) in the active layers of electronic devices can confer desirable properties, such as enhanced charge transport properties due to better ordering, charge transport anisotropy for reduced device cross-talk, and polarized light emission or absorption. The solution-based deposition of highly aligned small molecule OSCs has been widely demonstrated, but the alignment of polymeric OSCs in thin films deposited directly from solution has typically required surface templating or complex pre- or postdeposition processing. Therefore, single-step solution processing and the charge transport enhancement afforded by alignment continue to be attractive. We report here the use of solution shearing to tune the degree of alignment in poly(diketopyrrolopyrrole-terthiophene) thin films by controlling the coating speed. A maximum dichroic ratio of ∼7 was achieved on unpatterned substrates without any additional pre- or postdeposition processing. The degree of polymer alignment was found to be a competition between the shear alignment of polymer chains in solution and the complex thin film drying process. Contrary to previous reports, no charge transport anisotropy was observed because of the small crystallite size relative to the channel length, a meshlike morphology, and the likelihood of increased grain boundaries in the direction transverse to coating. In fact, the lack of aligned morphological structures, coupled with observed anisotropy in X-ray diffraction data, suggests the alignment of polymer molecules in both the crystalline and the amorphous regions of the films. The shear speed at which maximum dichroism is achieved can be controlled by altering deposition parameters such as temperature and substrate treatment. Modest changes in molecular weight showed negligible effects on alignment, while longer polymer alkyl side chains were found to reduce the degree of alignment. This work demonstrates that solution shearing can be used to tune polymer alignment in a one-step deposition process not requiring substrate patterning or any postdeposition treatment.

Facile stereoselective synthesis of an enantiomerically pure -Ru-trisbipyridine type complex is accomplished by using a new chiral and conformationally rigid ligand, which completely predetermines the helical chirality of the metal, yielding exclusively -configuration in the present case. The ligand, abbreviated chiragen[6] is a bisbipyridine compound, where two pinene substituted bipyridine units are linked through an aliphatic Ce-chain. The two remaining coordination sites of the complex are occupied by 4,4'-dimethylbipyridine. The structure of the A-[Ru(chiragen-[6])(4,4,-dimethylbipyridine)](CF3S03)2 complex has been determined by X-ray crystallography. Metal complexes formed by chiragen ligands have potential applications in enantioselective catalysis and as chiral building blocks for polynuclear species.

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Low-bandgap diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based polymers are used for the selective dispersion of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNTs). Through rational molecular design to tune the polymer-SWCNT interactions, highly selective dispersions of s-SWCNTs with diameters mainly around 1.5 nm are achieved. The influences of the polymer alkyl side-chain substitution (i.e., branched vs linear side chains) on the dispersing yield and selectivity of s-SWCNTs are investigated. Introducing linear alkyl side chains allows increased polymer-SWCNT interactions through close π-π stacking and improved C-H-π interactions. This work demonstrates that polymer side-chain engineering is an effective method to modulate the polymer-SWCNT interactions and thereby affecting both critical parameters in dispersing yield and selectivity. Using these sorted s-SWCNTs, high-performance SWCNT network thin-film transistors are fabricated. The solution-deposited s-SWCNT transistors yield simultaneously high mobilities of 41.2 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) and high on/off ratios of greater than 10(4) . In summary, low-bandgap DPP donor-acceptor polymers are a promising class of polymers for selective dispersion of large-diameter s-SWCNTs.