Macrocyclic Encapsulated Conjugated Polymers

Abstract

Conjugated polymers continue to demonstrate impressive performance in almost any device or function to which they are applied. However, our understanding of the underlying processes, such as the importance of inter-and intramolecular interactions, is rather limited. Encapsulated conjugated materials are an attractive class of materials that could potentially improve our fundamental understanding in these areas. This Perspective highlights important developments in the synthesis of encapsulated conjugated polymers and discusses some of their uses in organic electronics. By showing several examples of the two different types of macrocyclic encapsulated materials (covalent and noncovalent), we hope to provide a brief overview and honest perspective of both systems, their use, and future potential.

Precision synthesis of linear oligorotaxanes and polyrotaxanes achieving well-defined positions and numbers of cyclic components on the axle

“…[24][25][26] Moreover, in polyrotaxanes composed of p-conjugated polymer backbones, the cyclic molecules inhibit p-p interactions between conjugated chains, thus improving the physical properties related to the p-system. [27][28][29] These examples demonstrate the interesting features of polyrotaxanes with respect to both fundamental science and industrial applications. 30,31 It has been a few decades since the first efficient synthesis of polyrotaxanes was reported, 12 and recent research has shifted its focus to innovative synthetic procedures towards such materials and their applications.…”

Thickness Dependence of Electronic Structure and Optical Properties of F8BT Thin Films

“…Their semiconducting nature, easy structure modification, solution processability, flexibility, and cheap device solution fabrication such as spin-coating, dip-coating, and drop-casting make conjugated organic polymers a great candidate to be utilized in a broad range of organic electronic devices. Such applications can be organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs), polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs), chemical sensors and polymer solar cells (PSCs) [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ].…”

Molecular Encapsulation of Naphthalene Diimide (NDI) Based π‐Conjugated Polymers: A Tool for Understanding Photoluminescence

“…[11,12] Hence,i ncreasing the PLQY of narrow band gap conjugated polymers is essential for next generation OPV,aswell as being appealing for light emitting diodes and biological imaging.I ti sc ommonly assumed that the close packing of conjugated polymers results in the creation of additional non-radiative decay pathways.T herefore,t he most promising strategy to increase the solid-state PLQY of conjugated polymers is to molecularly isolate the chains either through covalent or non-covalent encapsulation. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Polymer dilution in ahost matrix can also be used to increase PLQY but this cannot suppress intramolecular interactions,oreven intermolecular in some cases. [22] Herein, we report the synthesis and characterization of an ovel encapsulated conjugated NDI polymer and report the resulting effect of molecular encapsulation on its optical properties.…”

“…Therefore, the most promising strategy to increase the solid-state PLQY of conjugated polymers is to molecularly isolate the chains either through covalent or non-covalent encapsulation. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Polymer dilution in a host matrix can also be used to increase PLQY but this cannot suppress intramolecular interactions, or even intermolecular in some cases. [22] Herein, we report the synthesis and characterization of a novel encapsulated conjugated NDI polymer and report the resulting effect of molecular encapsulation on its optical properties.…”