Unveiling the Potential of Biobased Bifuran unit in Conjugated Polymers: Synthesis, Thermal Properties, Photophysics, and Comparative Study with Phenylene and Thiophene Analogues for OLED Applications
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The bifuran unit is an attractive biobased building block for organic electronics, however its potential in electroluminescent devices has not been explored. In this study, a series of bifuranbased conjugated polymers, PBFAr1–PBFAr9, was synthesized via Suzuki–Miyaura polycondensation to evaluate the effect of the bifuran unit on thermal, photophysical, and electrochemical properties. For comparison, analogous polymers containing phenylene (PSPhAr1), biphenyl (PBPhAr1), and bithiophene (PBTAr1) units were also synthesized. Characterization showed that the bifuran-containing polymers exhibit varied thermal stability, emission in both solution and the solid state. Specifically, the photoluminescence quantum yield of chloroform solution of PBFAr1 was 43%, which was higher than the 39% observed for the bithiophene-based analogue, PBTAr1. Kelvin probe measurements indicated an energy-level alignment with the ITO anode that may facilitate hole injection. Solution-processed OLEDs with an ITO/PEDOT:PSS/emissive polymer/LiF/Al architecture were fabricated, and the PBFAr1-based device exhibited bright cyan electroluminescence at 484 nm. These results suggest that bifuranbased conjugated polymers have potential as emissive and p-type semiconducting materials for organic optoelectronic applications.
Source: ChemRxiv
Language: English
Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7212050578