10.1021/ol4025953 r 2013 American Chemical Society Published on Web 10/04/2013
ORGANIC
LETTERS
2013
Vol. 15, No. 20
5338–5341
Synthesis and Molecular Properties
of Four Isomeric Dialkylated
Angular-Shaped Naphthodithiophenes
Sheng-Wen Cheng, De-Yang Chiou, Yu-Ying Lai, Ruo-Han Yu, Chia-Hao Lee, and
Yen-Ju Cheng*
Department of Applied Chemistry, National Chiao Tung University 1001 Ta Hsueh Road, Hsin-Chu Taiwan
Received September 9, 2013
ABSTRACT
A new strategy to synthesize 4,9- and 5,10-dialkylatedR-aNDTs as well as 4,9- and 5,10-dialkylated β-aNDTs is described. Four isomeric precursors with different dithienyl-ene-diyne arrangements undergo base-induced double 6π-cyclization to construct the central naphthalene cores, leading to the formation of the regiospecific products. These 2,7-distannylated dialkylated aNDT-based monomers can be used for Stille cross-coupling to produce promising conjugated materials for various optoelectronic applications.
The acenedithiophene (AcDT) family has been used as key building blocks to make superior organic semiconductors.1 The regioselective functionalization at the R-positions of the two outer thiophenes of AcDTs allows for versatile two-dimensional π-extension and polymerization. Because of the rigid and coplanar architecture of AcDTs to facilitate
π-electron delocalization and π π stacking for efficient charge transport,2 tricyclic benzodithiophene (BDT)3and pentacyclic anthradithiophene (ADT)2d,4 derivatives have been extensively incorporated into a variety of conjugated polymers to produce high-performance organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and polymer solar cells (PSCs). Very recently, another promising and attractive π-conjugated AcDT, tetracyclic naphthodithiophenes (NDTs), has re-ceived increasing attention. It has been demonstrated by Takimiya and co-workers that the molecular packing of NDT-based polymers is strongly influenced by the geometry of NDTs.5 For instance, copolymers with the “zigzag” angular-fused NDT (aNDT) motif were reported to possess (1) (a) Takimiya, K.; Shinamura, S.; Osaka, I.; Miyazaki, E. Adv.
Mater. 2011, 23, 4347–4370. (b) Anthony, J. E. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 452–483. (c) Anthony, J. E. Chem. Rev. 2006, 106, 5028–5048. (2) (a) Goetz, K. P.; Li, Z.; Ward, J. W.; Bougher, C.; Rivnay, J.; Smith, J.; Conrad, B. R.; Parkin, S. R.; Anthopoulos, T. D.; Salleo, A.; Anthony, J. E.; Jurchescu, O. D. Adv. Mater. 2011, 23, 3698–3703. (b) Shinamura, S.; Osaka, I.; Miyazaki, E.; Nakao, A.; Yamagishi, M.; Takeya, J.; Takimiya, K. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 5024–5035. (c) Osaka, I.; Abe, T.; Shinamura, S.; Miyazaki, E.; Takimiya, K. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 5000–5001. (d) Dickey, K. C.; Anthony, J. E.; Loo, Y. L. Adv. Mater. 2006, 18, 1721–1726.
(3) (a) Chen, Y.-L.; Chang, C.-Y.; Cheng, Y.-J.; Hsu, C.-S. Chem. Mater. 2012, 24, 3964–3971. (b) Huo, L.; Hou, J.; Zhang, S.; Chen, H.-Y.; Yang, Y. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 1500–1503. (c) Liang, Y.; Xu, Z.; Xia, J.; Tsai, S.-T.; Wu, Y.; Li, G.; Ray, C.; Yu, L. Adv. Mater. 2010, 22, E135–E138. (d) Piliego, C.; Holcombe, T. W.; Douglas, J. D.; Woo, C. H.; Beaujuge, P. M.; Frechet, J. M. J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 7595–7597. (e) Pan, H.; Wu, Y.; Li, Y.; Liu, P.; Ong, B. S.; Zhu, S.; Xu, G. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2007, 17, 3574–3579. (f) Takimiya, K.; Kunugi, Y.; Konda, Y.; Niihara, N.; Otsubo, T. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 5084–5085.
(4) (a) Chen, M.-C.; Kim, C.; Chen, S.-Y.; Chiang, Y.-J.; Chung, M.-C.; Facchetti, A.; Marks, T. J. J. Mater. Chem. 2008, 18, 1029–1036. (b) Lehnherr, D.; Waterloo, A. R.; Goetz, K. P.; Payne, M. M.; Hampel, F.; Anthony, J. E.; Jurchescu, O. D.; Tykwinski, R. R. Org. Lett. 2012, 14, 3660–3663. (c) Li, Z.; Lim, Y.-F.; Kim, J. B.; Parkin, S. R.; Loo, Y.-L.; Malliaras, G. G.; Anthony, J. E. Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 7617– 7619. (d) Mamada, M.; Minamiki, T.; Katagiri, H.; Tokito, S. Org. Lett. 2012, 14, 4062–4065. (e) Wu, J.-S.; Lin, C.-T.; Wang, C.-L.; Cheng, Y.-J.; Hsu, C.-S. Chem. Mater. 2012, 24, 2391–2399.
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Org. Lett., Vol. 15, No. 20, 2013 5339 higher ordered solid-state structures and OFET mobilities
than polymers incorporating the linear-fused NDT (lNDT) component.2b,c,5,6Moreover, the aNDT units are expected to result in higher open-circuit voltage (Voc) and better
oxida-tive stability for PSC applications than lNDTs on account of the lower lying HOMO energy level of aNDTs.7,8
Depending on the geometry of the fused thiophenes, the sulfur atoms in aNDT can be functionalized on either the R- or β-positions of the central naphthalene moiety, yield-ing two regioisomers denoted asR-aNDT and β-aNDT, respectively (Figure 1). Although the synthesis of the R-aNDT and β-aNDT small molecules has been reported, 2-b,9
the absence of aliphatic side chains as solubilizing groups greatly restricts their further application toward polymer synthesis.
To create a new class of aNDT-based polymers for widespread applications in solution-processable OFETs and PSCs, side-chain engineering and manipulation of the aNDT frameworks are highly desirable but synthe-tically challenging. The position of the aliphatic side chains can dramatically influence the solubility, crystal-lization, molecular packing and thus charge transporta-tion of the polymers, resulting in variatransporta-tions of device performance.
Incorporation of two aliphatic side chains ontoR-aNDT andβ-aNDT can be at the 4,9- or 5,10-positions of the central naphthalene core. The side-chain steric and elec-tronic effects at 4,9- and 5,10-positions could play a crucial role in determining the photophysical, orbital, and bulk properties which are worthy of systematic investigation. Compared to dialkylation at outer 5,10-positions, substi-tution at inner 4,9-positions could in principle reduce their steric interference with other alkyl groups on the
neighboring aromatic rings, thereby maintaining coplanar backbone of the resulting oligomers or polymers. Very recently, Takimiya et al. first developed an approach to selectively functionalize two alkyl chains at the 5,10-positions ofR-aNDT.10A donor acceptor copolymer incor-porating 5,10-dodecylR-aNDT units successfully achieved a high OFET mobility of up to 0.1 cm2V 1s 1and a high PSC efficiency of up to 8.2%.11 Besides, although 4,9-dialkoxylatedR-aNDT and its corresponding oligomers12 and polymers13 were also reported to show moderate performance in PSCs, the electron-donating alkoxy groups might raise HOMO energy level of the corresponding polymers,10,11 which could lower Voc. Up to date, the
synthesis of 4,9-dialkylated R-aNDT, 5,10- and 4,9-dia-lkylatedβ-aNDT units has never been disclosed.
Herein, we present a novel and systematic strategy to implant lateral decyl substituents at inner 4,9- and outer 5,10-positions of R-aNDT and β-aNDT units, leading to the successful construction of the four isomeric
Scheme 1. Synthesis of Inner 4,9-DialkylatedR-aNDT and β-aNDT
Figure 1. Molecular structures ofR-aNDT, β-aNDT, and four isomeric dialkylated aNDTs.
(6) (a) Loser, S.; Bruns, C. J.; Miyauchi, H.; Ortiz, R. P.; Facchetti, A.; Stupp, S. I.; Marks, T. J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 8142–8145. (b) Sanjaykumar, S. R.; Badgujar, S.; Song, C. E.; Shin, W. S.; Moon, S.-J.; Kang, I.-N.; Lee, J.; Cho, S.; Lee, S. K.; Lee, J.-C. Macromolecules 2012, 45, 6938–6945.
(7) (a) Nakano, M.; Shinamura, S.; Houchin, Y.; Osaka, I.; Miyazaki, E.; Takimiya, K. Chem. Commun. 2012, 48, 5671–5673. (b) Osaka, I.; Shinamura, S.; Abe, T.; Takimiya, K. J. Mater. Chem. C 2013, 1, 1297.
(8) (a) Dutta, P.; Yang, W.; Eom, S. H.; Lee, W.-H.; Kang, I. N.; Lee, S.-H. Chem. Commun. 2012, 48, 573–575. (b) Osaka, I.; Abe, T.; Shimawaki, M.; Koganezawa, T.; Takimiya, K. ACS Macro Letters 2012, 1, 437–440.
(9) Shinamura, S.; Miyazaki, E.; Takimiya, K. J. Org. Chem. 2010, 75, 1228–1234.
(10) Shinamura, S.; Sugimoto, R.; Yanai, N.; Takemura, N.; Kashiki, T.; Osaka, I.; Miyazaki, E.; Takimiya, K. Org. Lett. 2012, 14, 4718–4721.
(11) Osaka, I.; Kakara, T.; Takemura, N.; Koganezawa, T.; Takimiya, K. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 8834–8837.
(12) Loser, S.; Miyauchi, H.; Hennek, J. W.; Smith, J.; Huang, C.; Facchetti, A.; Marks, T. J. Chem. Commun. 2012, 48, 8511–8513.
(13) (a) Bathula, C.; Song, C. E.; Badgujar, S.; Hong, S.-J.; Park, S. Y.; Shin, W. S.; Lee, J.-C.; Cho, S.; Ahn, T.; Moon, S.-J.; Lee, S. K. Polym. Chem. 2013, 4, 2132–2139. (b) Shi, S.; Jiang, P.; Yu, S.; Wang, L.; Wang, X.; Wang, M.; Wang, H.; Li, Y.; Li, X. J. Mater. Chem. A 2013, 1, 1540–1543.
5340 Org. Lett., Vol. 15, No. 20, 2013 aNDT-based structures including 5,10-didecyl R-aNDT
and 4,9-didecylR-aNDT (simplified as 5,10-R-aNDT and R-aNDT) as well as 5,10-didecyl β-aNDT and 4,9-didecyl β-aNDT (simplified as 5,10-β-aNDT and 4,9-β-aNDT). The regiospecific synthesis of inner and outer dialkylated aNDTs was accomplished through two key steps, McMurry coupling14and base-catalyzed15 6π-cyclization16
of dieneyne moieties.
The synthetic route toward 4,9-R-aNDT and 4,9-β-aNDT is depicted in Scheme 1. In the presence of titanium tetrachloride and a reducing agent of Zn, the start-ing materials, 3-bromothiophene-2-carbaldehyde (1) and 2-bromothiophene-3-carbaldehyde (4), underwent McMurry coupling reactions to furnish dimerized alkenes 1,2-bis-(3-bromothiophen-2-yl)ethene (2) and 1,2-bis(2-bromo-thiophene-3-yl)ethene (5), respectively, with almost E-form olefinic configuration in moderate yields. Sonoga-shira coupling reactions of 2 and 5 with 1-dodecyne afforded the dithiophenyl enediynes 3 and 6, respectively, in high yields. The key step to construct the inner 4,9-R-aNDT and 4,9-β-4,9-R-aNDT involves tandem base-induced 6π-cyclizations in the presence of diazabicycloundecene (DBU) in refluxing N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), forming the central naphthalene cores with the alkyl chains specifically at the 4,9-positions. Finally, the 4,9-R-aNDT and 4,9-β-aNDT were doubly lithiated by n-butyllithium followed by treatment with trimethyltin chloride, yield-ing 2,7-distannyl-4,9-didecyl R-aNDT (Sn-4,9-R-aNDT) and 2,7-distannyl-4,9-didecylβ-aNDT (Sn-4,9-β-aNDT), respectively, in good yields.
Scheme 2 shows the synthetic route toward 5,10-R-aNDT and 5,10-β-5,10-R-aNDT. Nucleophilic addition of 2-for-mylthiophene and 3-for2-for-mylthiophene with dodecynyllithium led to the formation of the corresponding 1-(thiophene-2-yl)tridec-2-yn-1-ol (7) and 1-(thiophene-3-yl)tridec-2-yn-1-ol (10), which were oxidized by pyridinium chlorochro-mate (PCC) to generate the respective thiophenyl decynyl
ketones (8 and 11). The McMurry coupling reactions of 8 and 11 by using TiCl4/Zn conditions afforded the olefinic
products 9 and 12, respectively, with a dominating E-form configuration.
In a similar manner, double annulations of the dienyne moieties in 9 and 12 in the presence of DBU in heating NMP successfully formed the central naphthalene units of the desired 5,10-R-aNDT and 5,10-β-aNDT products, which were further converted to 2,7-distannyl-5,10-didecyl R-aNDT (Sn-5,10-R-aNDT) and 2,7-distannyl-5,10-didecyl β-aNDT (Sn-5,10-β-aNDT), respectively, in good yields. The bis-stannylated aNDT-based monomers are ready for a variety of end-capping cross-coupling reactions or polymerization. By installation of aliphatic substituents, the resultant aNDT molecules all show good solubility in common organic solvents. All of the compounds were fully characterized by using1H and13C NMR and mass spectrom-etry (see the Supporting Information). The X-ray crystal-lographic structures of 4,9-R-aNDT and 5,10-β-aNDT are shown in Figure 2. Indeed, the side-chain arrangement and the geometry of conjugated frameworks dramatically influence the intermolecular packing. The decyl groups of 4,9-R-aNDT are situated outside of the two π π stacking channels (Figure S3, Supporting Information), whereas the decyl groups of 5,10-β-aNDT are intercalated within the π π stacking channels (Figure S4, Supporting Information).
Scheme 2. Synthesis of Outer 5,10-DialkylatedR-aNDT and β-aNDT
Figure 2. Top and side view of ORTEP: (a) 4,9-R-aNDT and (b) 5,10-β-aNDT (80% probability for thermal ellipsoids).
(14) (a) Dai, W.-M.; Mak, W. L. Tetrahedron Lett. 2000, 41, 10277– 10280. (b) McMurry, J. E. Chem. Rev. 1989, 89, 1513–1524. (c) Periasamy, M.; Srinivas, G.; Karunakar, G. V.; Bharathi, P. Tetrahedron Lett. 1999, 40, 7577–7580.
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Org. Lett., Vol. 15, No. 20, 2013 5341 The normalized absorption spectra of the four isomeric
aNDTs structures are shown in Figure 3. The absorption is highly dependent on the isomeric geometry of the aNDT frameworks. Although the absorption edges of the four isomeric aNDT molecules all reach up to around 350 nm, their absorption profiles are strikingly different. In com-parison toR-aNDTs-based molecules, the β-aNDT-based molecules not only showed a hypsochromic λmax band
at around 260 270 nm but also exhibited much intense peaks from 300 to 350 nm. The position of alkyl chains onR-aNDT and β-aNDT also exerts notable effects on the optical properties. Inner 4,9-R-aNDT and 4,9-β-aNDT showed slightly more red-shifted absorption λmax than
their corresponding outer 5,10-alkylated ones.
By means of cylic voltammetry (CV), the HOMO energy level was estimated to be 5.66, 5.70, 5.60, and 5.63 eV for 4,9-R-aNDT, 5,10-R-aNDT, 4,9-β-aNDT, and 5,10-β-aNDT (Supporting Information). It is expected that the aNDT-based materials with low-lying HOMO energy levels will be advantageous for enhancing air stability and Voc
values for photovoltaic applications.
To gain more insight into the molecular orbital proper-ties of four-isomeric aNDT structures, quantum chemical calculations were performed. The decyl substituents are replaced with the ethyl groups for simplicity. The calculated data are summarized in Table S3 (Supporting Information) and HOMO/LUMO orbitals of the model compounds are shown in Figure 4.β-aNDT-based molecules have smaller theoretical optical band-gaps and higher lying HOMO energy levels compared to their corresponding R-aNDT-based counterparts. Notably, the oscillator strengths of the HOMO LUMO transitions of R-aNDT units are much weaker than those ofβ-aNDT units, suggesting that the HOMO and LUMO orbitals of the β-aNDT units have better symmetry transition. This result can also rationally
explain whyR-aNDT units showed much small absorption signals between 300 and 360 nm.
In conclusion, we developed a useful synthetic strategy to successfully prepare four isomeric aNDT molecules where the angular geometry of the fused thiophenes and the position of the side chain on the central naphthalene cores can be regiospecifically controlled. Dialkylated R-aNDT and β-aNDT exhibited interesting and different optical and orbital properties which allow for fine-tuning the optoelectronic performance of the resultant aNDT-based materials. These dialkyl R-aNDT and β-aNDT molecules have been further stannylated for future Stille cross-coupling. Incorporation of these dialkylated R-aNDT and β-aNDT frameworks into donor acceptor conjugated polymers with sufficient solubility are highly promising for PSCs and currently underway in our labora-tory. We envision that this synthetic concept can also be applied to prepare a variety of coplanar acenes/heteroa-cenes substituted with solubilizing side chains.
Acknowledgment. We thank the National Science Council and the Ministry of Education, and Center for Interdisciplinary Science (CIS) of the National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, for financial support. We thank the National Center of High-performance computing (NCHC) in Taiwan for computer time and facilities.
Supporting Information Available. Detailed synthesis, emission spectra, theoretical calculations, CV and DSC mea-surements, NMR spectra, and X-ray crystallographic data of 4,9-R-aNDT and 5,10-β-aNDT. This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.
Figure 3. Absorption spectra of 4,9-R-aNDT, 5,10-R-aNDT, 4,9-β-aNDT, and 5,10-β-aNDT in dichloromethane.
Figure 4. Calculated HOMOs and LUMOs of 4,9-R-aNDT, 5,10-R-aNDT, 4,9-β-aNDT, and 5,10-β-aNDT with the DFT B3LYP/6-311G (d,p) level.
