Thermal
or photochemical 1,4-coupling reactions of butadiyne units
can be employed to cross-link polymers. Poly(arylenebutadiynylene)s
are solution-processable organic semiconducting polymers which are
used in organic electronic devices. However, effects of the topochemical
cross-linking reactions of the main chain backbone on the electronic
device performances have not been reported before. Intermolecular
π–π stacking of the main chain backbones was expected
to assist the alignment of the butadiyne units, and this would omit
the necessity of introducing conventional aligning groups such as
hydrogen-bonding amide units. Two different poly(arylenebutadiynylene)s,
namely, crystalline poly(thieno[3,2-b]thiophen-2,5-diylbutadiynelene)
(pDETT) and rather amorphous poly(thiophen-2,5-diylbutadiynelene)
(pDET), were prepared, and their topochemical cross-linking was comprehensively
studied. Grazing-incident wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) measurements
and density functional theory calculations of pDETT demonstrated the
required butadiyne alignment suitable for the thermal topochemical
reaction. As the newly formed covalent bonds were almost perpendicular
to the polymer backbone plane, the resulting twist of the polymer
backbone disrupted the extent of π-conjugation, which should
have negatively affected the charge transport properties. However,
the very tight molecular packings of pDETT inhibited the formation
of excess cross-links. Consequently, the partially cross-linked pDETT
film showed an improved charge carrier mobility in organic field-effect
transistors as compared to the precursor polymer film. On the other
hand, amorphous pDET produced cross-links at the randomly π–π
stacked regions by both thermal and UV-induced topochemical reactions,
and the resulting films were completely deficient of charge transport.