Base-Free Suzuki Polymerization with Fluoride-salt Mediated for Siloxane-Based Hybrid Semiconducting Polymers

Abstract

In this report, a practical variation of the Suzuki polymerization to generate semiconducting polymeric hybrids based on siloxane units, which proceeds under essentially non-basic conditions, is presented and optimized. This method can be used to generate solution-processable poly(diketopyrrolopyrrole-alt-benzothiadiazole) (PDPPBT-Si) polymer consisting of the hybrid siloxane substituents, which could not be made using conventional methods. PDPPBT-Si exhibits excellent ambipolar transistor performance with well-balanced hole and electron FET mobilities. The siloxane-containing DPP-thiophene polymer classes (PDPP3T-Si and PDPP4T-Si), synthesized via this method, exhibit high hole mobility of up to 1.29 cm2 V-1 s-1. This synthetic approach should provide access to a variety of novel siloxane-containing conjugated semiconductor classes via a selection of aryldihalides and aryldiboronic acids/esters.