文摘
There is intense interest in the rational design of semiconducting materials to improve organic electronics. Furan is a particularly attractive monomer for building biorenewable and biodegradable π-conjugated frameworks. In this report, regioregular head-to-tail and head-to-head poly(3-hexylfuran) were synthesized using chain-growth polycondensation. The resultant polyfurans have relatively low molecular weights but also low dispersities. The head-to-head polyfuran adopted a nearly identical coplanar backbone conformation as its head-to-tail analog in the solid state, as determined by UV–visible spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. Extensive aggregation of the furan homopolymer during polymerization led to the investigation of an alternating furan-thiophene copolymer, confirming that furyl-based monomers can polymerize in a chain-growth manner. All of the synthesized polymers are sensitive when exposed to both oxygen and light.