A Simple Quinoid Building Block for Polymer Semiconductors with Tunable Polarity and High n‐Type Thermoelectric Performance
π-Conjugated polymers with deep-positioned lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) level and large electron mobility are highly pursued as n-type organic thermoelectric materials. Herein, we synthesized a simple structured electron-deficient quinoid building block, thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-2,5-dione (TTD), via one step from a low-cost starting material. Based on TTD, polymers PQD and PQTD were successfully developed, featuring remarkably low-lying LUMO levels (-3.91 eV for PQD and -3.73 eV for PQTD), which greatly facilitate n-doping process. Unexpectedly, it was found that charge carrier polarity of PQD and PQTD can be tuned from p-type to ambipolar and finally to n-type in organic field-effect transistors after thermal treatment, an unprecedented phenomenon in polymer semiconductors. Organic thermoelectric devices based on n-doped PQD films showed an excellent electrical conductivity up to 19.1 S cm<sup>-1</sup> and a power factor of 36.7 µW m<sup>-1</sup> K<sup>-2</sup>. To the best of our knowledge, this PF value ranks the highest reported to date for n-doped quinoid-based polymers. This work underscores the great potential of structurally simple and readily accessible electron-deficient quinoid TTD for the development of high-performing n-type polymer semiconductors.
Authors
- Sergio Gámez‐Valenzuela (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2690-2331)
- Suxiang Ma
- Xiage Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3522-2717)
- Xugang Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6193-637X)
- Peng Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6983-2724)
- Bumjoon J. Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7783-9689)
- Weipeng Sun
- Zhicheng Zhong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1245-4993)
- Hanqiang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-6197-2610)
- Jinwoo Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6689-2759)
Institutions
- Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KR)
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Dynamic Systems (United States) (US)
- Great Bay University
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2025-04-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202501196
- Citations
- 9
- Primary Topic
- Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 6.57