A corannulene-based donor–acceptor polymer for organic field-effect transistors

For the first time, the corannulene unit was incorporated directly into the backbone of conjugated polymers. A new donor–acceptor (D–A) copolymer PICBT using imide-fused corannulene as acceptor was synthesized and its performance in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) was tested. PICBT exhibited ambipolar transporting property with a hole mobility of 0.025 cm2 V−1 s−1 and electron mobility of 7.45 × 10−5 cm2 V−1 s−1 when the substrates were treated with octyltrimethoxysilane (OTS). If the substrates were not modified with OTS, PICBT showed lower device performances with a hole mobility of 4.62 × 10−3 cm2 V−1 s−1 and electron mobility of 1.54 × 10−4 cm2 V−1 s−1. The device performances are competitive among the amorphous materials. This work paved the way for incorporating the corannulene unit into conjugated materials.