Low-Defect, High Molecular Weight Indacenodithiophene (IDT) Polymers Via a C-H Activation: Evaluation of a Simpler and Greener Approach to Organic Electronic Materials

The development, optimization, and assessment of new methods for the preparation of conjugated materials is key to the continued progress of organic electronics. Direct C-H activation methods have emerged and developed over the last 10 years to become an invaluable synthetic tool for the preparation of conjugated polymers for both redox-active and solid-state applications. Here, we evaluate direct (hetero)arylation polymerization (DHAP) methods for the synthesis of indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b′]dithiophene-based polymers. We demonstrate, using a range of techniques, including direct visualization of individual polymer chains via high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy, that DHAP can produce polymers with a high degree of regularity and purity that subsequently perform in organic thin-film transistors comparably to those made by other cross-coupling polymerizations that require increased synthetic complexity. Ultimately, this work results in an improved atom economy by reducing the number of synthetic steps to access high-performance molecular and polymeric materials.