Synthetic strategies, molecular engineering and applications of semiconducting polymers based on diarylethylene units in electronic devices

Abstract

The past four decades have witnessed the dynamism of polymer semiconductors in organic electronics, from incipient polyacetylene to current donor–acceptor polymers. In order to further promote the development of organic semiconductor materials, novel semiconducting polymers were continuously synthesized and new synthetic strategies were constantly explored. Recently, owing to the excellent planarity and structural tunability of diarylethylenes, semiconducting polymers based on diarylethylene units have been considered as a class of promising semiconductor materials and extensively studied. Much effort has been made to develop various diarylethylene units, which were used to synthesize many high-performance polymeric materials. This review summarizes the synthetic strategies of diarylethylenes and their polymers. Furthermore, molecular engineering of diarylethylene units on semiconducting polymers is introduced in detail, focusing on the effect of various structural modifications on the physicochemical and optoelectronic properties. The applications of these polymers in electronic devices are discussed, including organic field-effect transistors, organic photovoltaics, organic electrochemical transistors, organic thermoelectrics, organic spin valves, and so forth. In the end, the challenges encountered and the future outlook in this field are highlighted.