Novel Extended Chromophores as Organic Transistor Materials

The field of organic electronics benefits from the synthetic diversity of conjugated chromophores, which can be further functionalized to tune everything from optical gap to crystal packing. The ability to vary structure allows an impressive variety of related compounds to be compared, enhancing our understanding of design rules for the development of new semiconductor materials. For example, we know that two-dimensional electronic coupling is critical to high-mobility devices, as is a layered / lamellar motif for the 2D interacting layers. Design guidelines beyond that are only now emerging - such as a desire for isotropic electronic coupling within the 2D interacting layers, and functionalization that minimizes core vibration in the solid state. With these emerging notions in mind, I will present an array of new and exotic aromatic backbones and functionalization schemes designed to further explore these newer potential design guidelines, to attempt to determine their impact on performance in organic transistors. In particular, the impact of chromophore twisting / curvature on charge transport studies will be discussed.