title: Developing conjugated polymers with high electron affinity by replacing a C-C unit with a B←N unit.
abstract: The key parameters of conjugated polymers are lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy levels. Few approaches can simultaneously lower LUMO and HOMO energy levels of conjugated polymers to a large extent (>0.5 eV). Disclosed herein is a novel strategy to decrease both LUMO and HOMO energy levels of conjugated polymers by about 0.6 eV through replacement of a C-C unit by a B←N unit. The replacement makes the resulting polymer transform from an electron donor into an electron acceptor, and is proven by fluorescence quenching experiments and the photovoltaic response. This work not only provides an effective approach to tune the LUMO/HOMO energy levels of conjugated polymers, but also uses organic boron chemistry as a new toolbox to develop conjugated polymers with high electron affinity for polymer optoelectronic devices.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022 (P. R. China).
authors: Chuandong
authors: C
authors: Dou
authors: Zicheng
authors: Z
authors: Ding
authors: Zijian
authors: Z
authors: Zhang
authors: Zhiyuan
authors: Z
authors: Xie
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Liu
authors: Lixiang
authors: L
authors: Wang
keywords: boron; conjugation; electron transport; fluorescence; polymers