General room-temperature Suzuki–Miyaura polymerization for organic electronics

Abstract

π-Conjugated polymers (CPs) have broad applications in high-performance optoelectronics, energy storage, sensors and biomedicine. However, developing green and efficient methods to precisely synthesize alternating CP structures on a large scale remains challenging and critical for their industrialization. Here a room-temperature, scalable and homogeneous Suzuki–Miyaura-type polymerization reaction is developed with broad generality validated for 24 CPs including donor–donor, donor–acceptor and acceptor–acceptor connectivities, yielding device-quality polymers with high molecular masses. Furthermore, the polymerization protocol significantly reduces homocoupling structural defects, yielding more structurally regular and higher-performance electronic materials and optoelectronic devices than conventional thermally activated polymerizations. Experimental and theoretical studies reveal that a borate transmetalation process plays a key role in suppressing protodeboronation, which is critical for large-scale structural regularity. Thus, these results provide a general polymerization tool for the scalable production of device-quality CPs with alternating structural regularity. A general process for a room-temperature, homogeneous Suzuki–Miyaura-type polymerization is reported, demonstrating a route for the scalable production of device-quality conjugated polymers.