New polymerization method for highly efficient materials in organic electronics

在过去的十年里，有机电子学取得了重大进展。低成本制造工艺、轻量化和机械灵活性等独特特征应该会带来廉价高效的印刷设备，用于可再生能源生产(太阳能电池)或电子设备(晶体管)。然而，这一重要研究领域的出现与可靠的聚合方法(如Stille、Suzuki、Heck等)的可用性密切相关。以提供定义明确且可重复的聚合物半导体。然而，这些最先进的方法通常涉及产生金属废物和/或需要额外合成步骤的有机金属试剂。要解决这些问题，更环保、更便宜的合成过程将是一笔巨大的财富。沿着这些思路，我们最近开发了一种新的聚合方法，称为直接杂芳基化。我们成功地获得了结构清晰、无锡、高相对分子质量的硫代并[3，4-c]吡咯-4，6-二酮(TPD)共聚物，它们是制造塑料太阳能电池和场效应管的重要材料。根据第一批有希望的结果，我们希望进一步探索已知的和新的基于TPD的共聚物的合成，但我们也打算研究和优化各种其他半导体聚合物的合成。为了更好地理解和控制这种新聚合方法的选择性，还将进行机理研究。大多数聚合物将在各种类型的太阳能电池和晶体管中进行测试，最有希望的将由我们的工业合作伙伴进行更大规模的生产。总体而言，该项目应导致高度创新和独特的聚合方法，应有助于塑料电子的实施。

The last ten years have witnessed significant advances in organic electronics. Unique features such as low-cost manufacturing processes, lightweight, and mechanical flexibility should lead to cheap and efficient printed devices for renewable energy production (solar cells) or electronic devices (transistors). However, the emergence of this important research field is strongly linked to the availability of reliable polymerization methods (i.e. Stille, Suzuki, Heck, etc.) to afford well-defined and reproducible polymeric semiconductors. However, these state-of-the-art methods generally involve organometallic reagents which create metal waste and/or require extra synthetic steps. To solve these problems, greener and cheaper synthetic procedures would be a great asset. Along these lines, we recently developed a new polymerization method called direct heteroarylation. We successfully obtained well-defined, tin-free, and high molecular weight (not attainable with classical procedures) thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione (TPD)-based copolymers which are among the most important materials for plastic solar cells and field-effect transistors. Following these first promising results, we want to further explore the synthesis of known and new TPD-based copolymers but we also intend to investigate and optimize the synthesis of various other semiconducting polymers. Mechanistic studies will also be performed to better understand and control the selectivity of this new polymerization method. Most polymers will be tested in various types of solar cells and transistors and the most promising ones will be produced on a larger scale by our industrial partner. Overall, this project should lead to highly innovative and unique polymerization methods that should contribute to the implementation of plastic electronics.