1,2,5,6-Tetrathiocin as a scaffold for improved charge transport in double-cable oligothiophene systems

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Taylor, Rupert G. D. and Cameron, Joseph and Fairley, Michael and Wright, Iain A. and Savagian, Lisa R. and Wilson, Claire and Pitak, Mateusz B. and Coles, Simon J. and Makala, Manikanta and Jurchescu, Oana D. and Skabara, Peter J. (2025) 1,2,5,6-Tetrathiocin as a scaffold for improved charge transport in double-cable oligothiophene systems. Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 13 (37). pp. 19260-19270. ISSN 2050-7526 (https://doi.org/10.1039/D5TC02038G)

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Abstract

Four novel small molecules featuring central 1,2,5,6-tetrathiocin (TTC) units fusing two oligothiophene chains have been prepared, characterised and their structures elucidated through X-ray crystallography. These compounds have been evaluated as p-channel semiconductors in organic field-effect transistor devices, representing the first time that any tetrathiocin-containing compound has been utilised in organic transistors. Through extensive optimisation, involving the screening of different processing solvents, surface treatments, post-processing conditions, dielectric materials, and device configurations, hole mobilities (μh) in the 10−2 cm2 V−1 s−1 range were obtained for the most optimised devices, with the highest value of 7.3 × 10−2 cm2 V−1 s−1 achieved in 5T-TTC. The double-cable design, established through two parallel oligothiophene chains in the same molecule bridged by a tetrathiocin core, provides improved device characteristics over analogous double-cable oligothiophenes with tetrathiafulvalene and germanium cores.

ORCID iDs

Taylor, Rupert G. D. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0841-8298, Cameron, Joseph, Fairley, Michael ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6021-0339, Wright, Iain A., Savagian, Lisa R., Wilson, Claire, Pitak, Mateusz B., Coles, Simon J., Makala, Manikanta, Jurchescu, Oana D. and Skabara, Peter J.;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)