Towards Highly Substituted Starburst Macromolecular Semiconductors: Microwave Synthesis, Spectroscopy and Electrochemical Properties

As part of a strategy to explore highly functionalized macromolecular semiconductors, a series of highly substituted twelve-armed macromolecules F1CzTr-F3CzTr consisting of truxene, 9-phenylcarbazole and oligofluorene units were synthesized. To accomplish the synthesis of twelve-armed targets, a high yield microwave enhanced synthesis method for direct twelvefold Suzuki couplings was developed. The resulting materials exhibited high purity and good monodispersity (PDI 1.01-1.03). The molecular weight of the compound F3CzTr achieved 14 266 g.mol(-1), representing one of the largest well-defined starburst conjugated molecules. The thermal, photophysical and electrochemical properties were investigated.