A New Ladder-Type Germanium-Bridged Dithienocarbazole Arene and Its Donor–Acceptor Conjugated Copolymers: Synthesis, Molecular Properties, and Photovoltaic Applications

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...