Perpendicularly entangled perylene diimides for high performance electron transport materials

A new family of perpendicularly entangled perylene diimides and di(perylene diimide) dimers featuring double linkage was synthesized via copper-mediated Ullmann coupling. The highly twisting structures endow them remarkable electron transport characteristics with comparable mobility reaching 0.16 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and an on/off current ratio up to 5.0 × 10⁶ in air for PDI dimer based solution-processed OTFTs. While diPDI dimers with expanded conjugated core proved their competing electron mobilities as PDI dimers, especially for their low threshold voltage and good air stability.