Synthesis, Characterization, and Application of Low and Reduced Band Gap Thieno[3,4-b]pyrazine-based Materials

Conjugated polymers are a class of materials receiving significant interest due to their unique combination of optical and electronic properties found in inorganics with the flexibility and processability of traditional organic plastics. These materials have become popular in application to electronic devices such as organic photovoltaics (OPVs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), sensors, electrochromics and field effect transistors (FETs). As the energetic gap between frontier orbitals, the band gap (Eg) is largely responsible for the energetic transitions of these materials and thus tuning of this parameter is of great interest. A popular method to reducing Eg is through the use of fused ring systems such as thieno[3,4-b]pyrazines (TPs). These TP-based materials have been previously applied to solar cells. However, all exhibited limited efficiency (