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Stabilization of the radical cationic state of a donor molecule by 3-D homoconjugation was probed using a substituted carbon-bridged oligophenylenevinylene backbone (COPV, or 5,5-diarylindeno[2,1-a]indenes). For molecules bearing electron-donating groups as the 5,5-aryl moieties, a one-electron oxidation of the COPV backbone results in delocalization of the cationic charge over the whole molecule with a small reorganization energy. The compounds forming a stable radical cation by 3-D homoconjugation produce a uniform amorphous film and show high short-circuit current, high fill factor, and hence high power-conversion efficiency when used as a hole-transporting layer of an organic-inorganic hybrid lead perovskite solar cell. This material thus shows a performance and stability in air comparable to those obtained with the benchmark material, spiro-MeOTAD.

We have used Raman spectroscopy to study the molecular and electronic structures of the radical cations and dications of carbon-bridged oligo(para-phenylenevinylene)s (COPVn, n = 1-6) possessing consecutive fused pentagons and hexagons, up to 19, along with COPV derivatives having electron-donating and -withdrawing groups. This study was made possible by the outstanding stability of the charged states of COPVs. We could untangle the effects of π-conjugation in the planar structure on the Raman frequency by distinguishing it from other structural effects, such as strain in the vinylene groups shared by the two pentagons. The analyses showed that the radical cations have benzo-quinoidal structures confined in the center of the molecule, as well as benzo-aromatic rings at the terminal sites. In contrast, dications of COPVn longer than n = 3 exhibit a biradicaloid character because of the recovery of aromaticity in the central rings and quinoidal rings at the terminal positions. These biradicaloids favor a singlet nature in their ground electronic states because of the double spin polarization. The introduction of electron-donating and -withdrawing groups on the termini of a COPV core affords, upon oxidation or reduction, a fully delocalized class III mixed valence system because of the high degree of conjugation of the COPV platform, which favors extensive charge delocalization.

A heptacyclic carbocycle possessing three p-quinodimethane units conjugated in one plane has been synthesized and shown to exhibit distinct biradical characteristics. The molecule has a HOMO/LUMO band gap of ca. 1 eV and a S(0)-T(1) energy gap of 2.12 kcal/mol, and it absorbs and emits near-IR light at room temperature. It is air-stable under ambient light for several months and thermally stable up to 160 °C under nitrogen, and it undergoes reversible two-electron oxidation and reduction. The synthetic approach is such that a smaller and larger oligo-p-quinodimethane can be synthesized.

The manganese-catalyzed dehydrative [2 + 2 + 2] annulation reaction of a 1,3-dicarbonyl compound and a terminal alkyne provides an efficient and regioselective synthesis of a substituted benzene derivative, highlighted by the exclusive formation of a p-terphenyl derivative from an aryl acetylene. The mechanism and the origin of the regioselectivity of the reaction were explored by experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Experimental data revealed the cis stereochemistry of a cyclohexadienol precursor to the benzene product and suggested that two reaction pathways may operate competitively sequential carbometalation reactions of a manganese enolate and formation of a manganacyclopentadiene intermediate. The DFT study supported the first possibility, namely that the reaction involves three steps: (1) addition of a manganese enolate of a 1,3-dicarbonyl compound to a terminal alkyne to give a vinylmanganese complex, (2) insertion of a second alkyne into the vinyl-Mn bond to give a dienylmanganese complex, and (3) intramolecular nucleophilic addition of the dienylmanganese to the carbonyl group. This mechanism is consistent with the experimental facts such as the perfect regioselectivity of the reaction of an aryl acetylene, the moderate regioselectivity of the reaction of an alkyl acetylene, and the stereochemistry of the annulation product. An alternative mechanism involving a manganacyclopentadiene intermediate failed to account for the experimental regioselectivity, although it may be occurring as a very minor competitive pathway.

Construction of a nonracemic all-carbon quaternary stereocenter at the alpha-position of beta-ketoesters was achieved by way of an indium(III)-catalyzed diastereoselective alpha-alkenylation reaction of chiral enamines with 1-alkynes. The enamine bearing a chiral auxiliary derived from l-isoleucine was added to the alkyne to give an alpha-alkenylated product in excellent yield and with a stereoselectivity better than 90% ee. One can ascribe the high selectivity to a chelate intermediate involving the auxiliary and the metal atom and the high yield to efficient interactions between the indium(III) atom and the alkyne. The selectivity increased as the reaction temperature was raised to 120 degrees C and decreased at higher temperatures.

The high responsiveness of π-conjugated materials to external stimuli, such as electrons and photons, accounts for both their utility in optoelectronic applications and their chemical instability. Extensive studies on heteroatom-stabilized π-conjugated systems notwithstanding, it is still difficult to combine high performance and stability. We report here that carbon-bridged oligo(p-phenylenevinylene)s (COPV-n) are not only more responsive to doping and photoexcitation but also more stable than the conventional p-phenylenevinylenes and poly(3-hexylthiophene), surviving photolysis very well in air, suggesting that they could serve as building blocks for optoelectronic applications. Activation of the ground state by installation of bond angle strain toward the doped or photoexcited state and the flat, rigid, and hindered structure endows COPVs with stimuli-responsiveness and stability without recourse to heteroatoms. For example, COPV-6 can be doped with an extremely small reorganization energy and form a bipolaron delocalized over the entire π-conjugated system. Applications to bulk and molecular optoelectronic devices are foreseen.

We here report naphtho[2,1-b:6,5-b']difuran derivatives as new p-type semiconductors that achieve hole mobilities of up to 3.6 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) along with high I(on)/I(off) ratios in solution-processed single-crystal organic field-effect transistors. These features originate from the dense crystal packing and the resulting large intermolecular π-orbital overlap as well as from the small reorganization energy, all of which originate from the small radius of an oxygen atom.

Addition of trimethylstannyllithium to a diarylacetylene takes place exclusively in an anti-fashion to produce a lithio vinylstannane intermediate. The regioselectivity of the addition is controlled by the steric and electronic property of the acetylene and reaches up to >99:1. The two newly formed C-metal bonds can be sequentially and stereospecifically transformed into two new C-C bonds as illustrated by stereoselective synthesis of 4-hydroxytamoxifen and its regioisomer. A tetraarylethene bearing different aryl groups can be synthesized similarly and cyclized to a substituted dibenzo[g,p]chrysene derivative via a palladium-catalyzed arylation reaction.

A variety of 1H-indenes, dihydro-s-indacenes, and diindenoindacenes, carbon-bridged phenylenevinylene derivatives, can be synthesized in good to high yields using as a synthetic module a 3-lithioindene compound made available by reductive cyclization of an alkynylbenzene derivative. The planar analogues of oligophenylenevinylene compounds thus synthesized show physical properties beneficial for use as ambipolar organic semiconductor materials.

Lewis acidic indium(III) salts, in particular In(NTf(2))(3), effect the conversion of alpha-(omega'-alkynyl)-beta-ketoesters and omega-alkynyl-beta-ketoesters to the corresponding cyclic products in a manner known as the Conia-ene reaction. This reaction can lead to the creation of five- to fifteen-membered-ring carbocycles and heterocycles in good to excellent yields. The synthetic features of the reaction are a relatively low catalyst loading, as low as 0.01 mol % in the best case, as well as no requirement of solvent for five-membered-ring formation and the requirement of only moderately dilute reaction conditions for medium-sized-ring formation. The high reactivity of indium salts is due to the double activation of the beta-ketoester substrate containing an acetylene function. The indium metal activates the beta-ketoester moiety by the formation of an indium enolate, and this indium metal electrophilically activates the alkyne moiety. Such a strong push-pull activation of the substrate by a single metal circumvents the disadvantage of entropic and enthalpic factors generally associated with the formation of medium- and large-sized rings. The reaction allows the ready formation of a fifteen-membered-ring carbocycle, from which dl-muscone has been synthesized.

The perfect all-anti-octasilane composed of two bicyclic trisilane units with trimethylsilyl groups at the termini has been synthesized. Its X-ray crystal structure and spectroscopic data demonstrate the effective sigma-delocalization over the silicon framework, which is a definitive difference from the unconstrained n-Si8Me18.

For development of the molecular solar-energy conversion systems, it is crucial to investigate how both the molecular geometry and electronic structure of electron donor-bridge-acceptor (D-B-A) molecules contribute to the electronic coupling for the charge-separation (CS) and charge-recombination (CR) processes. In a D-B-A system of a porphyrin-fullerene dyad (ZnP-C(60)) bridged by a diphenyldisilane spacer, we have characterized one specific folded molecular conformation in the CS state among several existing conformations using the time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (TREPR) method at low temperature. To determine the molecular conformation and spin-spin exchange coupling of the CS state, we have considered (1) the electron spin polarization transfer from the excited triplet state of the C(60) moiety to the CS state and (2) the sublevel-selective spin relaxations and CR in the CS state. In the CS state of this conformation, although the ZnP cation and C(60) anion radicals are in close proximity, direct overlap between their singly occupied molecular orbitals is small, resulting in detection of the long-lived CS state which has a totally different conformation from the optically detected, charge-transfer (CT) complex. It has been demonstrated that, among several folded and extended molecular conformations created by the flexibility of the -Si-Si- bridge, the EPR conformation can play a role on the prevention of the energy-wasting CR.

Treatment of a mixture of a 1,3-dicarbonyl compound such as a beta-ketoester or 1,3-ketone and a terminal acetylene with a catalytic amount of MnBr(CO)5 in heated toluene produces a benzene derivative by a [2+2+2] coupling reaction incorporating the enol part of the dicarbonyl compound and two moles of the acetylene. When the reaction was carried out using phenylacetylene derivatives, the reaction was completely regioselective, producing p-terphenyl compounds in good to excellent yield. Aliphatic terminal acetylenes also reacted readily but gave a mixture of regioisomers. The reaction features high atom economy, neutral conditions, and functional group tolerance, and will be useful for materials-oriented studies.

Trimethylstannyllithium promotes cyclization of (o-alkynylphenyl)silane into a 3-stannylbenzosilole, via addition to the triple bond followed by intramolecular cyclization in a cascade fashion. This intermediate can be functionalized with either electrophiles or nucleophiles to allow modular synthesis of 2,3-disubstituted benzosiloles. One of these compounds, a phenylene-bis(benzosilole) compound, shows electron drift mobility as high as 6 x 10-4 cm2/Vs in an amorphous film, making this class of compounds promising electronic materials for organic light emitting devices and organic photovoltaic cells.

The silicon analogues of the oligo(p-phenylenevinylene)s (Si-OPVs) with highly planar structures have been synthesized using a newly developed ligand, the 1,1,3,3,5,5,7,7-octaethyl-s-hydrindacen-4-yl (Eind) group. Their X-ray crystal structures and spectroscopic data demonstrate that the π-conjugation effectively extends over the Si-OPV framework. Notably, tetrasiladistyrylbenzene exhibits an orange fluorescence even at room temperature both in solution and in the solid state, which is attributable to the effective extension of conjugation. To the best of our knowledge, the tetrasiladistyrylbenzene is the first emissive SiSi derivative even at room temperature.

A new zinc-based annulation method produced regioselectively a variety of 2,3,6,7-tetraarylbenzo[1,2-b:4,5-b‘]difurans in good yields. The organic electroluminescent devices using these tetraarylbe...

On the basis of the UV absorption spectra of the anti,cisoid alternating oligosilanes, the first experimental clear-cut evidence was presented for the generally accepted idea that the sigma conjugation in polysilanes does not effectively extend through a tetrasilane fragment with a small dihedral angle such as a cisoid turn.