CFM Seminar

Diarenoindacenes and Diindenoarenes: From Antiaromatic

Semiconducting Materials to Stable, Tunable Organic Diradicals

Presenter:  Michael M. Haley, Richard M. & Patricia H. Noyes Professor,
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon

Dr. Haley will present their synthetic, structural, computational and materials studies of a class of
carbon-rich semiconducting molecules based on the indenofluorene (IF) skeleton. 1 Access to the fully conjugated, 20 π-electron, formally antiaromatic system is accomplished via a variety of intermediate diones. These molecules in turn can be assembled via well-known organic possesses (Suzuki cross-coupling, benzylic oxidation, Friedel-Crafts  acylation/alkylation). 1 Optimization of their synthesis now permits access to IF derivatives in multigram quantities. We
have shown that thin films or single crystals of several different IF scaffolds can serve as an active layer in organic field effect transistors (OFETs). 2 Current studies are focused on varying the antiaromaticity of the indacene unit by systematic alteration of the outer benzene groups with other aromatic units 3 as well as on increasing the diradical character of the
framework by expansion of the quinoidal core. 4