Crystals (Jul 2024)

Synthesis, Crystal Structure, and Electropolymerization of 1,4-Di([2,2′-bithiophen]-3-yl)buta-1,3-diyne

  • Alessandro Pedrini,
  • Chiara Massera,
  • Enrico Dalcanale,
  • Marco Giannetto,
  • Roberta Pinalli

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst14070620
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 7
p. 620

Abstract

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For their great structural versatility, thiophene-based π-conjugated systems have been widely exploited in the preparation of low band gap materials. Here, we report the synthesis of a highly conjugated tetrathiophene system, namely 1,4-di([2,2′-bithiophen]-3-yl)buta-1,3-diyne (1), that presents two bithiophene units connected at position 3 by a butadiynylene spacer. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD) analysis elucidated the structure of 1, confirming the planarity of the molecule. The molecule was then electropolymerized onto the surface of a gold-coated piezoelectric quartz crystal, showing a high reactivity that is ascribable to the extended conjugation. The frontier molecular orbital energies of 1 were obtained via DFT optimization performed on the crystal structure-derived molecular geometry. Finally, DFT was also used to estimate the polymer band gap.

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