Acenes, usually defined as segments of “graphene”, consist of linearly annulated benzene rings, and have attracted considerable interest in both theoretical research and practical applications. However, these compounds generally have undesirable features such as poor solubility, easy oxidation and photodimerization. Thus, scientists have to invest much effort to address these problems and experimentally achieve the desired electronic properties to meet various demands. Herein, we summarize recent progress in the synthesis of pyrene‐functionalized acenes and heteroacenes through the use of pyrene diketone and pyrene tetraketone building blocks. Moreover, the physical properties and applications of these semiconductors in organic semiconductor devices are also described.

Three novel furanacenes (5/D5c) have been synthesized and characterized.

A novel film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) with two resonant frequencies which have opposite reactions to temperature changes has been designed. The two resonant modes respond differently to changes in temperature and pressure, being the frequency shift linearly correlated to temperature and pressure changes. By utilizing the FBAR's sealed back trench as a cavity, an on-chip single FBAR sensor suitable for measuring pressure and temperature simultaneously is proposed and demonstrated. The experimental results show the pressure coefficient of frequency for the lower frequency peak of the FBAR sensors is approximately -17.4 ppm·kPa -1 , while that for the second peak is approximately -6.1 ppm·kPa -1 , both of them being much more sensitive than other existing pressure sensors. This dual mode on-chip pressure sensor is simple in structure and operation, can be fabricated at very low cost, and yet requires no specific package, therefore has great potential for applications.

Organic/inorganic hybrid multilayer films with noncentrosymmetrically orientated azobenzene chromophores were fabricated by the sequential deposition of ZrO2 layers by a surface sol-gel process and subsequent layer-by-layer (LbL) adsorption of the nonlinear optical (NLO)-active azobenzene-containing polyanion PAC-azoBNS and poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA). Noncentrosymmetric orientation of the NLO-active azobenzene chromophores was achieved because of the strong repulsion between the negatively charged ZrO(2) and the sulfonate groups of the azobenzene chromophore in PAC-azoBNS. Regular deposition of ZrO(2)/PAC-azoBNS/PDDA multilayer films was verified by UV-vis absorption spectroscopy and quartz crystal microbalance measurements. Both UV-vis absorption spectroscopy and transmission second harmonic generation (SHG) measurements confirmed the noncentrosymmetric orientation of the azobenzene chromophores in the as-prepared ZrO2/PAC-azoBNS/PDDA multilayer films. The square root of the SHG signal (I(2omega)(1/2)) increases with the increase of the azobenzene graft ratio in PAC-azoBNS as the number of deposition cycles of the ZrO(2)/PAC-azoBNS/PDDA films remains the same, while the second-order susceptibility chi(zzz)(2) of the film decreases with the increase of the azobenzene graft ratio. Furthermore, the present method was successfully extended to realize the noncentrosymmetric orientation of azobenzene chromophores in multilayer films when small organic azobenzene compounds with carboxylic acid and/or hydroxyl groups at one end and sulfonate groups at the other end were used. The present method was characterized by its simplicity and flexibility in film preparation, and it is anticipated to be a facile way to fabricate second-order nonlinear optical film materials.