Naphthalenediimides Fused with 2-(1,3-Dithiol-2-ylidene)acetonitrile: Strong Electron-Deficient Building Blocks for High-Performance n-Type Polymeric Semiconductors

Naphthalenediimides (NDI) fused with two 2-(1,3-dithiol-2-ylidene)acetonitrile moieties (NDI-DTYA2), a novel strong electron-deficient monomer, was designed and readily synthesized by aromatic nucleophilic substitution to develop n-type polymers. Two NDI-DTYA2 based donor–acceptor (D–A) polymers P(NDI-DTYA2–1T) and P(NDI-DTYA2–2T) have been prepared (1T = thiophene, 2T = 2,2′-bithiophene) and showed low-lying LUMO energies (<−4.2 eV) and near-infrared optical absorptions (optical band gap <1.3 eV). Although the film feature of these polymers is amorphous, pure electron transport with high mobility of up to 0.38 cm2 V –1 s –1 could be achieved for their bottom gate organic thin film transistors, which was among the highest performances for unipolar n-type polymers. The results demonstrate that NDI-DTYA2 derivatives are promising building blocks for developing electron transport π-functional materials.