Conjugated Polymers Inspired by Crystalline Silicon

Modern technologies depend on the semiconductor silicon. Silicon nanostructures evince compelling properties including luminescence and biodegradability. Silicon-based soft matter is less explored, despite the attractive properties of conjugated polymers and small molecules inspired by crystalline silicon. This perspective describes the major synthetic approaches to polysilanes and summarizes innovations in the preparation of structurally complex functional polysilanes that combine unusual conjugation phenomena, solution processability, and morphological control. A connection is drawn between the limitations of current polymerization methodology and fine control of structure–property relationships.