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We have developed a new germanium-bridged heptacyclic arene, dithienogermolocarbazole (DTGC), in which two outer thiophene subunits are covalently fastened to the central 2,7-carbazole core by two dibutylgermanium bridges. The germole moieties embedded in the DTGC structure were successfully constructed by one-pot nucleophilic cyclization in a high yield of 88%. Because of the relatively lower polarity of carbon–germanium bonds, the DTGC unit is chemically stable under basic conditions, rendering its more versatile functionalization. Comparison of germanium-bridged DTGC with the carbon-bridged DTCC (dithienocyclopentacarbazole) and silicon-bridged DTSC (dithienosilolocarbazole) analogues reveals that the HOMO energy level of DTGC lies between those of DTCC and DTSC and so does the LUMO energy level of DTGC. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that DTSC and DTGC have more bent structures than DTCC, which plays an important role in determining their frontier orbital energies. The structural...

By utilizing Friedel−Crafts cyclization, we have successfully designed and synthesized a ladder-type heptacyclic carbazole-dicyclopentathiophene (CDCT-C8) unit in which two outer thiophene subunits are covalently fastened to the central 2,7-carbazole core. The nitrogen-directing effect of the carbazole unit facilitates the intramolecular cyclization and thereby suppresses the acid-induced dehydration, allowing us to incorporate two octyl side chains on the cyclopentadiene rings in good chemical yield. The distannyl-CDCT-C8 building block was copolymerized with benzothiadiazole (BT), dithienylbenzothiadiazole (DTBT), dithienyldiketopyrrolopyrrole (DTDPP) and quinoxaline (QX) units by Stille polymerization to afford four alternating donor−acceptor copolymers, PCDCTBT-C8, PCDCTDTBT-C8, PCDCTDTDPP-C8 and PCDCTQX-C8, respectively. The device based on the PCDCTBT-C8:PC71BM (1:3 in wt%) blend exhibited a Voc of 0.74 V, a Jsc of 10.3 mA/cm2, a FF of 60%, delivering an impressive PCE of 4.6%. This value represents...