Small asymmetric anthracene–thiophene compounds as organic thin-film transistors

Anthracene and thiophene compounds are promising materials for OTFTs. We report here, the synthesis, as well as the physical, thermal, and optoelectronic properties of alkyl-substituted asymmetric anthracene–thiophene compounds connected by a bridged triple bond. The target molecules were synthesized using 2-bromoanthracene as the starting material, and the proceeding reactions included alkylation, bromination, and the Sonogashira coupling reaction. The synthesized compounds were both thermally and electrochemically stable. Among the synthesized compounds, HTEA (7a) and DTEA (7b) showed mobility and on/off ratio values of 1.3×10−1 cm2/V s, 2.6×106 and 2.0×10−2 cm2/V s, 1.0×106, respectively.