Designing π-conjugated polymers for organic electronics

Conjugated polymers have attracted an increasing amount of attention in recent years for various organic electronic devices because of their potential advantages over inorganic and small-molecule organic semiconductors. Chemists can design and synthesize a variety of conjugated polymers with different architectures and functional moieties to meet the requirements of these organic devices. This review concentrates on five conjugated polymer systems with 1D and 2D topological structures, and on one polymer designing approach. This includes (i) conjugated polyphenylenes (polyfluorenes, polycarbazoles, and various stepladder polymers), (ii) other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as substructures of conjugated polymers, (iii) thiophene and fused thiophene containing conjugated polymers, (iv) conjugated macrocycles, (v) graphene nanoribbons, and finally (vi) a design approach, the alternating donor–acceptor (D–A) copolymers. By summarizing the performances of the different classes of conjugated polymers in devices such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), and polymer solar cells (PSCs), the correlation of polymer structure and device property, as well as the remaining challenges, will be highlighted for each class separately. Finally, we summarize the current progress for conjugated polymers and propose future research opportunities to improve their performance in this exciting research field.