Heterotetracenes: Flexible Synthesis and in Silico Assessment of the Hole Transport Properties

Thienoacenes and furoacenes are among the most frequent molecular units found in organic materials. The efficient synthesis of morphologically different heteroacenes and the rapid determination of their solid-state and electronic properties are still challenging tasks, which slow down progress in the development of new materials. Herein, we report a flexible and efficient synthesis of unprecedented heterotetracenes based on a platinum- and gold- catalyzed cyclization-alkynylation domino process using EthynylBenziodoXole (EBX) hypervalent iodine reagents as key step. The proof-of-principle in silico estimation of the synthesized tetracenes' charge transport properties reveals their strong dependence on both the position and nature of the heteroatoms in the ring system. A broad range of mobilities is predicted, with some compounds displaying performance potentially comparable to that of state-of-the art electronic organic materials.