Quinonoid
elements in π-conjugated oligomers and polymers
have promising characteristics by providing unique structures and
electronic properties, including varying degrees of ground state open
shell diradical character and small band gaps. So far, quinonoid ground
state polymers were rarely identified, and one of the goals of this
work was to expand the portfolio of such systems in which over 17
different repeat units were considered, about half preferred a quinonoid
and half preferred aromatic structures plus several with the alternating
A-Q composition were also included. The dependency of the diradical
character as a function of size and composition opens a rich space
to discover trends affecting the aromaticity and diradical character.
Herein, we show that the diradical character is a useful parameter
to classify a wide variety of polymers based on their ground states
in a systematic study of a large number of homo- and hetero-systems.
Homo-polymers with quinonoid ground states show a high diradical character,
while those with the aromatic ground state behave as closed-shell
systems with no or a very small diradical character. The diradical
character of quinonoid systems depends strongly on the size, which
increases with the size of the oligomer. We found a correlation between
the diradical character and the interring C–C distance as well
as the singlet–triplet energy gaps. In alternating copolymers
mixing quinonoid and aromatic subunits, we found open-shell hetero-polymers
with moderate to high diradical characters.