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A Cyano-Substituted Organoboron Electron-deficient Building Block for D-A Type Conjugated Polymers

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Abstract

The development of donor-acceptor (D-A) type conjugated polymers depends largely on the design of novel A building blocks. Herein, we report a novel A building block based on the cyano-substituted organoboron unit (SBN-3). Compared with the most common fluorine-substituted B←N unit, SBN-3 displays a significantly downshifted LUMO energy level because of the strong electron-withdrawing ability of cyano groups. In addition, due to the greater impact of cyano substitution on LUMO than on HOMO, SBN-3 exhibits a reduced band gap, near-infrared absorption and fluorescence properties. The D-A type conjugated polymers based on the cyano-substituted B←N unit with thiophene-based units show narrow optical band gaps of ca. 1.3 eV as well as distinctive electronic structures, i.e., delocalized LUMOs and localized HOMOs. This work thus provides not only an effective approach to design strong A units but also a new electron-deficient building block for D-A type conjugated polymers.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22135007, 21875244 and 52073281) and Jilin Scientific and Technological Development Program (No. YDZJ202101ZYTS138).

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China

    Meng-Yu Liu, Xing-Xin Shao, Jun Liu & Li-Xiang Wang

  2. School of Applied Chemistry and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Meng-Yu Liu, Xing-Xin Shao, Jun Liu & Li-Xiang Wang

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  1. Meng-Yu Liu
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  2. Xing-Xin Shao
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Correspondence to Jun Liu.

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Liu, MY., Shao, XX., Liu, J. et al. A Cyano-Substituted Organoboron Electron-deficient Building Block for D-A Type Conjugated Polymers. Chin J Polym Sci 41, 832–838 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-023-2940-4

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