An all-C–H-activation strategy to rapidly synthesize high-mobility well-balanced ambipolar semiconducting polymers

Summary

Ambipolar semiconducting polymers are of significant fundamental and technical interest. However, the tedious syntheses of using classic C(sp²)–C(sp²) coupling reactions make high-performance ambipolar polymers seriously absent. In order to address this dilemma, we report here an all-C–H-activation strategy to efficiently synthesize high-performance ambipolar polymers. Diketopyrrolopyrrole-dimer-type monomers and their acceptor-acceptor-type polymers are used as examples. Remarkably, two-step C–H activation reactions from monomer syntheses to polymerization can be accomplished within 2 h, affording a series of semiconducting polymers applied in flexible organic transistors with high and ideally balanced hole and electron mobilities up to 3.56 and 3.75 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, respectively. Furthermore, controlled molecular weight can be realized by varying the polymerization time, which is very important for regulating the trade-off between high mobility and suitable solution processability. Overall, this work offers a general strategy for the rapid synthesis of semiconducting polymers, potentially leading to wide applications of organic electronics.