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Carbazole-based diamines, E-Cz or K-Cz, were unexpectedly synthesized via the hydrogenation reaction in one pot, where the reduction of the nitro group, the deprotection of the benzyl group, and the coupling of triphenylamine happen simultaneously.

Solution-processable non-conjugated triarylamine-based polyamides with intrinsic microporous structure have been designed to investigate the diffusivity and the charge–discharge ability with distinct two-stage color changes to visualize the capacity.

Polycondensation of a bis(diazocarbonyl) compound and diaminotriphenylamine derivatization via Ru-catalyzed N–H insertion to afford electroactive polyamine.

Triphenylamine-based polynaphthalimides were synthesized and showed great potential as cathode, anode, and binders in lithium-ion batteries simultaneously.

The electrochromic (EC) polyamides (

Porous redox-active polyamide hybrid films have been successfully prepared to enhance the electrochromic (EC) properties in this report comparing with salt-caused porous films and hybrid films obtained via in situ sol-gel reaction of hydroxyl groups and zirconium dioxide (ZrO2). With the assistance of porous and hybrid structures, the diffusion rate of counterions between electrolyte and EC species could be effectively increased, and the charges could be delivered and stored between the donor-acceptor system constructed by the organic-inorganic hybrid during the electrochemical process. Furthermore, there would be a synergistic effect while combining the porous structure and hybrid system together, which can improve the EC behaviors much more obviously; that is, the enhancement of porous hybrid films is more than that of porous films and hybrid films individually. For further application, the porous hybrid films were fabricated into devices, which exhibit a lower oxidation potential (from 1.07 to 0.94 V) and shorter switching response time (from 81.3 to 9.7 s for coloring time and from 44.7 to 20.8 s for bleaching time) with good electrochemical stability. Consequently, these results indicate that the EC properties could be enhanced and improved dramatically by the facile approach of merging the porous structure and hybrid system.

The molecular structure of polymer electrets is crucial for creating diverse functionalities of organic field-effect transistor (OFET) devices. Herein, a conceptual framework has been applied in this study to design the highly photoresponsive carbazole-based copolymer electret materials for the application of photoresponsive OFET memory. As an electret layer, two 1,8-carbazole-based copolymers were utilized; the copoly(CT) consisted of carbazole as the donor group and thiophene as the π-spacer, whereas the copoly(CBT) was further introduced as an acceptor moiety, benzothiadiazole, for comparison. Both copolymers exhibited efficient visible-light absorption and photoluminescence quenching in the film state, indicating the formation of a considerable number of nonemissive excitons, one of the crucial factors for achieving photoinduced recovery behavior in OFET memories. Compared to copoly(CT) with the pure donor system, faster and more effective photoinduced recovery behavior was discovered in the copoly(CBT) with the conjugated donor-acceptor structure because of the coexistence of the conjugated donor and acceptor groups. Thus, the dissociation of the generated excitons facilitated the stimulating of the unique ambipolar trapping property, resulting in the high-density data storage devices with multilevel current states. In addition, the nonvolatile and durable characteristics demonstrated the feasibility in application of memory and photorecorders.

In this work, we studied the novel redox-active material N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine (TPB) and found it to exhibit the crucial optical characteristics of high PL quantum yields both in solution (ΦPL = 34.5%) and solid (ΦPL = 32.4%) states. This unique PL characteristic was key for fabricating liquid-type and gel-type electrochemical devices displaying high-performance electrochromic (EC) and electrofluorochromic (EFC) behaviours at the same time. All of the obtained devices based on TPB exhibited excellent EFC performance, including rapid switching response times, unprecedented PL intensity contrast ratio (Ioff/Ion) values of up to 374 (the highest value reported to the best of our knowledge), and remarkable levels of electrochemical stability. In addition, these devices could, without UV irradiation, be transformed between being highly transparent and colourless devices and being truly black ones through switching between their original and oxidative states.

A series of aggregation induced emission (AIE)-active and redox-active α-cyanostilbene-containing triphenylamine derivatives with different alkyl chain lengths and anions were successfully synthesized, and their optical, photoluminescent and electrochromic behaviors were investigated. In addition, the intrinsically ambipolar system was generated by incorporating the pyridinium moiety, which serves as a charge storage unit to effectively balance the charge during the electrochemical oxidation redox process. The photoluminescent performance of the resulting AIE- and redox-active materials in solution, aggregated and solid states was influenced by the different alkyl chains as well as anions.

Two novel triphenylamine-based derivatives with dimethylamino substituents, N, N'-bis(4-dimethylaminophenyl)- N, N'-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,4-phenylenediamine (NTPPA) and N, N'-bis(4-dimethylaminophenyl)- N, N'-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,1'-biphenyl-4,4'-diamine (NTPB), were readily prepared for investigating the optical and electrochromic behaviors. These two obtained materials were introduced into electrochromic devices accompanied with heptyl viologen (HV), and the devices demonstrate a high average coloration efficiency of 287 cm

This comprehensive review describes the recent development of triphenylamine-based advanced materials for various optoelectronic applications, such as electrochromic, electrofluorochromic, and polymeric memory devices. We herein systemically discuss the structural design, optical and electrical properties of different triphenylamine-containing high-performance polymers that will be beneficial for polymer chemists and scientific community to have deeper and broader understanding of the recent developments and further prompt the engineering and conceptual design of materials for a number of emerging applications (data storage, displays, and flexible electronics). Finally, perspectives on applications beyond the state-of-the-art are also included.

Five novel triphenylamine derivatives with two silyl ether protecting groups were readily synthesized and further underwent silyl polycondensation to obtain novel electro-active aromatic polyethers. These polymers exhibited high optical transparency, were colourless, were soluble in many organic solvents, and had useful levels of thermal stability associated with moderately high glass-transition temperatures and char yields. These anodically polymeric electrochromic materials displayed highly reversible electrochemical and electrochromic behaviour, with interesting and useful multi-colour changes related to their different oxidation stages.

This paper reports a UV-sensing organic field-effect phototransistor with a stacked pentacene channel and a doped aggregation-enhanced emission (AIE)-fluorescent electret for potential applications, such as photomemory storage and photodetectors. It is found that the emission of the photoirradiated doped electret (PA-SMX and PI-SMX) layer can be manipulated at various doping levels, which can be further absorbed by the photoactive pentacene channel. These photogenerated excitons can be separated, and the electrons can be trapped into the electret layer in the presence of gate voltage bias. Therefore, the photoinduced programming and electric field-driven erasing effects of the designed memory device based on doped electrets exhibit optimal photomemory performance with a memory window (MW) of 37.2 V and a reliable retention time over 10 000 s with good cyclic endurance. The photodetection can also be modulated by the illumination power intensity, which reflects a photosensitivity (S) of 1.92 × 106 and a photoresponsivity (R) of 45 A W−1 for organic phototransistors with the PI-SM5 doped electret at a photoexcitation intensity of 720 μW cm−2 at 365 nm. The photoresponse following the change in the threshold voltage and photocurrent correlate well with the spectroscopic results and provide further understanding and optimization of organic phototransistor memory devices.

Porous redox-active polyamide hybrid films have been successfully prepared to enhance the electrochromic (EC) properties in this report comparing with salt-caused porous films and hybrid films obtained via

Enhancing switching response capability of electrochromic (EC) polymers has been a topical issue. Herein, the H-shaped nonplanar pentiptycene scaffold is successfully introduced into the polyamide film derived from N,N'-bis(4-aminophenyl)-N,N'-di(methoxyphenyl)-1,4-phenylenediamine (TPPA), and the resulting copolymer shows enhanced EC behaviors, including lower oxidation potential and shorter switching response time, as compared to the corresponding TPPA-derived homopolymer.

Here, we use polyimide (PI), polyether (PE) and polyester (PET) with diphenyl sulfonyl (S) moieties combined with triphenylamine (TPA) units to obtain three polymer electrets, TPA-PIS, TPA-PES, and TPA-PETS, respectively. The pentacene-based organic field effect transistor (OFET) memories with the charge-trapping polymer electrets layer were examined. The variation in linkages in the polymer backbone noticeably influences the energy structures and molecular polarity, and thus their memory properties were systematically characterized and compared. Volatile memory characteristics can be observed for all three polymer electrets-based memories. Among these, the TPA-PIS and TPA-PETS electret OFET memory devices exhibit ambipolar trapping behavior capable of storing holes and electrons, with a memory window (MW) of 32.4 ± 1.2 V and 21.7 ± 1.0 V, respectively, and a memory ratio of 104∼106. Importantly, programming/erasing switching endurance for at least 100 cycles is achieved, allowing for tri-state memory storage. However, hole-only unipolar trapping of OFETs memory with the TPA-PES electret presents relatively slower charge detrapping phenomena and longer retention time ability due to the higher molecular dipole moment. Our comparative study demonstrates the important role of the linkage effect in aromatic polymers for developing polymer electret-based OFET memories.

Two triphenylamine derivatives, N,N,N',N'-tetrakis(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,4-phenylenediamine TPPA and N,N,N',N'-tetrakis(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,1'-biphenyl-4,4'-diamine TPB, were successfully prepared and combined with HV to fabricate the electrochromic device as a panchromatic shutter for the application of transparent display. The obtained electrochromic device exhibits exceptional novel electrochromic properties, including enhanced color contrast, switching time, and long-term stability. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that the most important contribution of this ambipolar system approach is that no supporting electrolyte is added into the device.

Two novel electrochromic (EC) polyamides with functional hydroxyl groups were successfully synthesized for preparing homogeneous hybrid films. The hydroxyl groups in the repeating units of the polymer backbones could serve as active sites in the sol–gel reaction to obtain organic–inorganic nanocomposites comprising titanium dioxide (TiO2) and anodic EC polyamides (TPPA-OH PA and TPB-OH PA). By using the facile approach of an electron donor–acceptor hybrid system in this report, the EC response capability could be essentially enhanced during the colouring and bleaching process. In addition, the colouring contrast and electrochemical stability of the fabricated EC devices could be further increased by judiciously combining the complementary EC material of heptyl viologen (HV) and TiO2.

N,N′-Bis(4-diphenylaminophenyl)pyromellitimide (TPA-PMDI) was synthesized from the condensation reaction of 4-aminotriphenylamine with pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA). The triphenylamine-diimide TPA-PMDI could be electrochemically polymerized into ambipolar, redox-active polyimide films on the electrode surface in an electrolyte solution via the coupling reactions between triphenylamine radical cations. The electro-generated polyimide films (coded as PI-E) exhibit reversible redox processes and stable color changes upon electro-oxidation, changing from a colorless neutral form to orange-yellowish and blue oxidized states. The film could also display pale green and pink cathodic coloring upon electro-reduction. Electrochromic devices using the electropolymerized film as an active layer were also fabricated as preliminary investigations for electrochromic applications. For a comparative study, a structurally similar polyimide (PI-C) was prepared by a conventional two-step condensation from N,N′-bis(4-aminophenyl)-N,N′-diphenyl-4,4′-biphenyldiamine with PMDA, and its spectroscopic, electrochemical and electrochromic properties were compared with those of the electro-synthesized PI-E.

Four triarylamine-based high-performance polyimides with secondary amine were readily synthesized, their ionic hydrogen-bonding interaction with pyridines and anions are successfully demonstrated (20 times higher than the literature in sensitivity) by the means of electrochemistry and spectroelectrochemistry. The prepared polymer thin films having the advantage for real-time qualitative detection are great candidates as chemosensors to both pyridines and anions.

A series of new luminescent and electrochromic polyimidothioethers (PITEs) was prepared from a new triphenylamine-based bismaleimide and commercial dithiols via Michael polyaddition. With organo-processability and high thermal stability, the optoelectronic properties of these PITEs were investigated and they demonstrated great potential as multifunctional materials for ambipolar electrochromic and electrofluorochromic devices, and fluorescent electrospun fibers.

Novel electrochromic (EC) and aggregation-enhanced emission (AEE)-active triphenylamine (TPA)-based polyamides were prepared with 4-cyanotriphenylamine (TPA-CN), 4-methoxytriphenylamine (TPA-OMe), cyclohexane (CH) and tetraphenylethene (TPE) moieties via condensation polymerization. The emission from the polyamides could be quenched from the neutral to oxidized states effectively due to the structural planarization and optical absorption shift of TPA units during electrochemical switching. With the introduction of n-heptyl viologen (HV) into the device system as a counter EC layer for balancing charges, the resulting high-performance electrofluorochromic (EFC) devices based on TPA-CN-CH as a photoluminescent (with a fluorescence quantum yield of up to 46% in the film state) and redox-active layer showed a high fluorescence contrast ratio (Ioff/Ion) of 105. The HV-containing TPA-OMe-TPE-based EFC device displayed the shortest response time of less than 4.9 s, and excellent improvement in reducing the switching recovery time and lowering the oxidation potential could also be achieved. Thus, judiciously designed multi-functional polymers with both redox- and AEE-active features are a crucial and feasible approach for preparing highly efficient EFC devices.

Five redox-active triphenylamine derivatives with methoxy protecting groups have been readily synthesized. They show excellent electrochemical stability, high extinction coefficient and multi-colored electrochromism at different applied potentials related to their oxidation stages, demonstrating their great potential as electrochromic materials for color palette.

Novel electroactive triphenylamine-based polyamide (PA) films with a purposeful porous structure have been designed and prepared by a simple route. Polymer thin films containing well dispersed electrolyte salts were prepared first, then channels of pores could be generated within the polymer film by washing the salts out. With the help of the porous channels, the diffusion rate between electroactive species and the electrolyte during the electrochemical process could be effectively increased. Consequently, the driving potential and electrochromic response time can be efficiently improved through this approach. Novel porous PA films with optimal results both in optical transparency and electrochemical properties could be readily obtained by choosing a commonly used supporting electrolyte TBABF4 as a salt in this study. When the PA films containing un-washed TBABF4 salt were further assembled into electrochromic devices (ECDs), the salt could then be leached out during the electrochemical redox switching process to form a porous film structure and also serves as a supporting electrolyte in ECDs simultaneously. Therefore, EC performance such as the driving potential and response time could be enhanced obviously by this simplified fabrication procedure of ECDs.

The formation of Tröger's Base (TB) configuration is a useful approach to synthesize polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIM). Herein, the V-shaped TB scaffold is incorporated to prepare electrochromic (EC) polyamide with electroactive triphenylamine (TPA) moiety. The presence of intrinsic microporosity derived from inefficient packing of TB scaffolds can facilitate the counterions diffusion between electroactive species and electrolytes. Consequently, the resulting TB-based polyamide exhibits enhanced EC behaviors, such as a lower driving potential, reduced the difference of redox potentials ΔE, and shorter switching response time compared to the corresponding EC counterpart polyamide.

A novel polyhydroxyimide and the respective polymer hybrids of titania or zirconia with remarkable thermal stability and optical properties have been successfully prepared. Polyhydroxyimides (PHIs) with high transparency were synthesized through one-step polycondensation. The hydroxyl groups in the repeating units of polymer backbone contribute organic–inorganic bonding reaction sites for preparing homogeneous films of hybrids. The hybrids displayed low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) (23 ppm °C−1 for PHI-BCZr30) and extraordinary thermal stability essential to sustain high glass transition temperatures (Tg) (350–410 °C). The transparency of thin film based on PHI-BC reaches 96% at 400 nm, and the refractive index of PHI-6F reaches 1.63. In addition, these polymer films of the hybrids revealed tunable refractive index (1.63–1.84 for PHI-6F/TiO2 and 1.63–1.81 for PHI-6F/ZrO2), and the hybrid films of PHI-BC/ZrO2 exhibited higher Abbe′s number and optical transparency than those of PHI-BC/titania system because of a larger band gap of zirconia. On introducing titania and zirconia, as electron acceptors, into PHI-6F, the charge-transfer complex could be facilitated and stabilized owing to the lower LUMO energy level of the resulting materials of the hybrid. Consequently, the memory devices fabricated from the polymer hybrid films manifested tunable memory properties from SRAM, and DRAM, to WORM at various titania or zirconia contents from 0 to 50 wt% with a high ON/OFF ratio (108). Moreover, various energy levels of titania and zirconia demonstrated the uniquely distinct memory characteristics, indicating that the PHIs/TiO2 and PHIs/ZrO2 hybrid films, as memory devices with high transparency, have strong potential in electrical applications.

Polyimides comprising high polarized moieties and electron-withdrawing groups usually exhibit high refractive index and good transparency with great potential for optoelectronic devices. Particularly, the incorporation of hydroxyl groups on the backbones of polyimides is an important strategy to enhance the solubility and provide reactive sites for organic-inorganic bonding. Composites prepared from organic polymer binder and inorganic fillers have recently attracted considerable interests due to their enhanced mechanical, thermal, optical and electrical properties compared to the corresponding polymer or inorganic component. Moreover, the inorganic components in hybrid films can also serve as electron acceptors for stabilizing the charge transfer complex thus result in electrically programmable digital memory properties. In addition, the high performance polyimides can further served as substrate and protector for the AgNWs-polyimide conductive hybrid films, exhibiting good adhesive property, high bendability, and excellent thermal stability. Owing to the high glass transition temperature ( T g ) of polyimides, the resulted AgNWs-polyimide electrode can maintain its conducting performance at high temperature operation. Thus, the hybrid electrode provided extremely high potential to operate at harsh working environment or further post processing. By the excellent combination of transparent polyimides and inorganic materials, the resulting polyimide hybrids showing promising potential are indispensable to optical and electrical applications.

Four aggregation-induced emission (AIE)- and electro-active cyanostilbene-based triphenylamine-containing derivatives with different substituents were synthesized to investigate their effects on the photoluminescence properties and electrochromic (EC) and electrofluorochromic (EFC) behavior of gel-type electrochromic devices (ECDs). The optical and photoluminescence properties of the obtained materials were influenced by the substituents, and revealed AIE-active characteristics, exhibiting stronger fluorescence intensity in the aggregated state than in solution. Consequently, the EFC devices could be fabricated by combining these AIE- and electro-active materials with cathodic EC heptyl viologen HV into the gel-type electrolyte system to enhance the emission intensity, on/off contrast ratio, and response capability.

Triphenylamine (TPA) and 4,4'-dimethoxy-triphenylamine (TPAOMe) derivatives were successfully linked with two high-performance AIEgens, triphenylethylene (TPE) and benzo[ b]thiophene-1,1-dioxide (BTO), to obtain four aggregation-induced emission and electro-active materials, TPETPA, BTOTPA, TPETPAOMe, and BTOTPAOMe. The effects on photoluminescence characteristics and electrochromic (EC) and electrofluorochromic (EFC) behaviors in cross-linking gel-type devices derived from the prepared materials were systematically investigated. Furthermore, heptyl viologen was introduced into the EFC devices to enhance EC performance including lower working potential, faster switching time, and superior stability.

In the past decade, a large number of high-performance polymers (HPPs) derived from triphenylamine (TPA) and/or carbazole groups have been synthesized, reported, and fabricated for electrochromic (EC) applications. HPPs such as aromatic polyamides and polyimides are well known for several remarkable properties such as outstanding thermal stability, chemical resistivity, and mechanical properties. Moreover, unlike most of the cathodically EC materials, arylamine-based HPPs can not only be colorless in the neutral form but also are not sensitive to oxygen/moisture and display excellent EC stability, all of which are also beneficial for practical application. The main aim of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive overview that covers the majority of work in the recent decade regarding arylamine-based EC HPPs and to demonstrate how the structural design influences the corresponding EC properties.

Newly designed dimethylamine-substituted triphenylamine (TPA) derivatives, N,N'-(1,4-phenylene)bis(N-(4-((tert-butyldimethylsilyl)oxy)phenyl)-N'',N''-dimethylbenzene-1,4-diamine) (NTPPA-2Si) and N,N'-((1,1′-biphenyl)-4,4′-diyl)bis(N-(4-((tert-butyldimethylsilyl)oxy)phenyl)-N'',N''-dimethylbenzene-1,4-diamine) (NTPB-2Si), with silyl ether protecting groups were readily synthesized. Subsequently, novel electroactive aromatic poly(ether sulfone)s (PES), NTPPA-PES and NTPB-PES, could be obtained from silyl polycondensation. The PESs were readily soluble in commonly used laboratory organic solvents and could be solution-cast into tough and amorphous films with moderate levels of glass-transition temperature around 220°C and thermal stability without significant weight loss up to 400 °C under nitrogen or air atmosphere. The Nernst equation method was used to explore the number of electrons transferred at each oxidation step of the targeted two monomers. Furthermore, these two anodic electrochromic PESs were introduced into electrochromic devices accompanied with cathodic heptyl viologen (HV), and the resulted devices demonstrated a high coloration contrast and excellent electrochemical stability.

A high-performance electrochromic polyamide, NPTB-PA, derived from N,N′-bis(4-(dimethylamino)phenyl)-N,N′-di(4-aminophenyl)-4,4′-biphenyldiamine (NTPB-diamine) demonstrates important characteristics of multi-oxidation stages and lower oxidation potentials due to the stronger electron-donating ability of dimethylamino groups. Besides, functional hydroxyl groups on the polymer backbone could be conducted via in-situ sol-gel reaction to form covalent bonds between polymer back-bones and precursor of zirconium dioxide (ZrO2), and the resulted hybrid films could shorten the switching response time and reduce oxidation redox potentials through electron donor-acceptor system during the electrochemical processes. In addition, anodic electrochromic polyamide NPTB-PA and cathodic heptyl viologen (HV) were introduced into the electrochromic device (ECD) to construct ambipolar system, and the obtained ECD exhibited the panchromatic absorption from transparent to truly black during oxidation (NPTB-PA)/reduction (HV) process with extremely high contrast of transmittance change (ΔT) of 80% over the whole visible-light region. This excellent combination is unique and facile for fabricating novel panchromatic advanced ECD shutter with only two redox-active materials.

Novel triarylamine-based aramids with secondary amine moieties are prepared and utilized as electrochemical detectors for pyridines. Their electrochemical behavior with different pyridines was investigated in order to demonstrate the ionic hydrogen bonding interaction of the secondary amine with the pyridines, resulting in obvious potential inversion which is also supported by in situ absorption measurements.

A series of solution-processable sulfur-containing poly(o-hydroxy-imide)s 3SOH-RPI with pendant hydroxyl groups and the corresponding 3SOH-RPI/ZrO2 polyimide (PI) hybrids were synthesized from the diamine 3SOH-DA and dianhydrides of CHDA, 6FDA, and DSDA, respectively, for memory application. By introducing acceptors with different electron-withdrawing capabilities (CHDA < 6FDA < DSDA) into polyimide backbones, the obtained polymer memory devices show the memory behaviors of none, DRAM, and SRAM, respectively. In order to facilitate and enhance the memory effects, different amounts of ZrO2 were incorporated into 3SOH-RPI to investigate the corresponding memory properties. The hydroxyl groups on the backbone of 3SOH-RPI could provide reaction sites for organic–inorganic bonding and the homogeneous hybrid thin films could therefore be obtained by controlling the mole ratio of zirconium butoxide/hydroxyl groups via a sol–gel reaction. The resulting PI hybrid films displayed electrically programmable digital memory properties from DRAM, SRAM, to WORM with a high ON/OFF current ratio by controlling the content of ZrO2 from 0 wt% to 30 wt%. Moreover, in order to deeply confirm the memory switching mechanism of 3SOH-RPI/ZrO2 hybrids, the devices fabricated both from PI/ZrO2 and PI/TiO2 hybrid films were used to demonstrate the effect of LUMO energy levels of ZrO2 and TiO2 on the memory characteristics and retention time in this study.

In this study, highly transparent and flexible electrodes were prepared by the hybrid technique of silver nanowires (AgNWs) and colorless high performance polyimides (PIs). By introducing AgNWs with a high aspect ratio of 600, the novel flexible AgNW–PI electrodes having figure of merit (FoM) value up to 260 could be obtained with a resistance of 3.6 Ω sq−1 and transmittance up to 70% at a 550 nm wavelength. Moreover, the PI binder effectively enhanced the adhesion between AgNWs and the PI substrate even after bending for 12 000 cycles and tape peeling for 1000 cycles, respectively. The obtained highly transparent and flexible AgNW electrodes could endure harsh working environments and post-processing by taking the thermal and chemical stability advantages of PIs. Furthermore, highly transparent AgNW–PI hybrid electrodes could be fabricated to demonstrate their feasibility as a snow-cleaning heater.

A new class of porphyrin-containing polyimides, ZnPor-s-DSDA, ZnPor-t-DSDA, Por-s-DSDA and Por-t-DSDA, were synthesized from porphyrin-containing diamines and 3,3′,4,4′-diphenylsulfone tetracarboxylic dianhydride for resistor-type memory applications. The effect of the linkage and zinc metal was investigated by electrochemistry, molecular simulations, and memory behaviors. The memory devices with different retention times derived from polymers ZnPor-s-DSDA (WORM, >3 h) and ZnPor-t-DSDA (DRAM, 30 s) demonstrated the importance of the linkage effect, and the insulation property of polyimides Por-s-DSDA and Por-t-DSDA also implies a crucial memory behavior by metal chelation.

In order to gain deeper insight into the linkage effect and donor–acceptor effect on memory behavior (from DRAM to WORM), 4-(N-carbazolyl)triphenylamine-based polyimides and polyamides t-butyl-6FPI, t-butyl-DSPI, OMe-6FPI, OMe-DSPI, t-butyl-6FPA, t-butyl-DSPA, OMe-6FPA, and OMe-DSPA were synthesized and their memory behaviours were investigated.

We prepared four series of triphenylamine (TPA)-based luminogens with various functional groups (diphthalic imide, tetracarboxylic acid, diphthalic anhydride, and pristine TPA) and substituted groups (–H, –Br, –CHO, and –CN), and corresponding fluorescent polyimides (PIs) were prepared from triarylamine-based dianhydride monomers with various aromatic and aliphatic diamine monomers for the investigation of their photophyscial behaviors. In the solution state, the introduction of strong electron acceptors such as formyl and cyano substituents in the luminogens induced strong emissions due to hybridized local and charge-transfer transitions (HLCTs). However, aggregated molecules containing these pendant electron-accepting groups resulted in quenching fluorescence behavior due to intermolecular interactions and energy transfers. Furthermore, the competition of aggregation-induced enhanced emission (AIEE) and aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effects was investigated and is discussed.

We design a novel solution-processable polyimide ZnPor-t-DSDA with porphyrin moiety (electron donor) and sulfone-containing phthalimide (electron acceptor) for polymer memory applications. The resulting memory device can be switched from low-conductivity (OFF) to high-conductivity (ON) by both positive and negative sweeps, exhibiting symmetry biswitching characteristic with a short retention time (30 s). On the basis of the simulation calculation, the coplanar structure between donor and acceptor units results in charge transferring easily back to its original state after being excited by an electric field.

A novel aggregation enhanced emission (AEE)-active polyamide TPA-CN-TPE with a high photoluminesence characteristic was successfully synthesized by the direct polymerization of 4-cyanotriphenyl diamine (TPA-CN) and tetraphenylethene (TPE)-containing dicarboxylic acid. The obtained luminescent polyamide plays a significant role as the polymer electret layer in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs)-type memory. The strong green emission of TPA-CN-TPE under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation can be directly absorbed by the pentacene channel, displaying a light-induced programming and voltage-driven erasing organic phototransistor-based nonvolatile memory. Memory window can be effectively manipulated between the programming and erasing states by applying UV light illumination and electrical field, respectively. The photoinduced memory behavior can be maintained for over 10