A novel angularly fused bistetracene: facile synthesis, crystal packing and single-crystal field effect transistors

Abstract

We report a facile synthesis of novel angularly fused bistetracene derivatives where two tetracene skeletons are cata-annulated at three benzene rings. Compared with previously described examples, our bistetracenes exhibit a narrower HOMO–LUMO gap but still exhibit high stability. Attempted synthesis of di-substituted bistetracene (BT-2TIPS) also led to unexpected triple (BT-3TIPS) and four-fold (BT-4TIPS) alkylsilylethynyl substitution. The photophysical, electrochemical and optical properties as well as the solid-state structure of these three bistetracene analogues are investigated. A charge carrier mobility up to 0.42 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ was determined based on field effect transistors.