Dipyridyl-Fused Quinoxalineimide (DPQI): A Strong Electron-Withdrawing Building Block for n-Type Polymer Semiconductors

Exploration of new electron-withdrawing building blocks plays a key role in the development of n-type organic semiconductors. Herein, a strong electron-withdrawing building block, dipyridyl-fused quinoxalineimide (DPQI), was successfully designed and synthesized. Single-crystal structure reveals that DPQI molecule possesses a completely planar backbone, which is beneficial for charge transport. For comparison, dibenzo-fused quinoxalineimide (DBQI) was also synthesized. The frontier molecular orbital (FMO) energy levels downshift with the incorporation of nitrogen atoms onto the pi-conjugated backbone of quinoxalineimide. Two acceptor-acceptor (or all-acceptor) polymers P(BTI-DBQI) and P(BTI-DPQI) based on DBQI and DPQI were synthesized, respectively. Two polymers exhibit deep lowest-unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) levels (similar to-3.5 eV). Additionally, P(BTI-DPQI) exhibits unipolar n-type charge transport with mu(e) of 1.4x10(-4) cm(2) V-1 s(-1) in the organic field-effect transistors (OFET), which render them highly attractive for developing n-type semiconductors device. This work demonstrates that DPQI is a promising building block for constructing n-type polymer semiconductors.