The functionalization of organic conjugated oligomers and polymers with main group heteroatoms has been an active area of research over the past several years. Particularly, the incorporation of organoborane groups into conjugated polymers has recently attracted considerable attention. This is due to the unusual optical and electronic properties resulting from the interaction between the empty p orbital of boron and p-conjugated systems, leading to potential applications as optoelectronic materials. On the other hand, the presence of the empty p orbital tends to impact the stability of tri-coordinated borane compounds, which is detrimental for applications in organic electronics. In our recent work, we successfully synthesized several new organoborane monomers that contain a bulky group for protection of boron from attack by nucleophiles, and thus makes the monomers perfectly stable to air and moisture. Based on these monomers, a series of novel conjugated polymers with boron in the main chain were synthesized using transition-metal catalyzed coupling reaction. All the polymers are highly emissive with quantum yields up to 52% and radiative constants (kr) up to 4�108 s-1, and emission colours ranging from blue to red. Moreover, the LUMO energy level can be readily tuned by variation of both the protective group and p-systems between boron atoms, affording a versatile approach for development of electron-deficient boron-containing polymers with controllable photo-physical properties. These compounds are highly promising as materials in optoelectronics.

Highly electron-deficient boron-containing conjugated polymers

247th National Meeting (2014)

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