Indacenodithiophene and indacenodiselenophene polymers and their use as organic semiconductors

1. A conjugated polymer of formula IIa

wherein

one of A 1 and A 2 is a single bond and the other is CR 1 R 2 ,

one of A 3 and A 4 is a single bond and the other is CR 3 R 4 ,

one of U 1 and U 2 is —CH═ or ═CH— and the other is —X—,

one of U 3 and U 4 is —CH═ or ═CH— and the other is —X—,

provided that if A i is a single bond then the corresponding U i is X (with i being an index from 1-4),

X is in each occurrence independently selected from —S— and —Se—,

R 1-4 are independently of each other identical or different groups which are straight-chain or branched-chain, C 1 -C 20 -alkyl, C 1 -C 20 -alkoxy, C 2 -C 20 -alkenyl, C 2 -C 20 -alkynyl, C 1 -C 20 -thioalkyl, C 1 -C 20 -silyl, C 1 -C 20 -ester, C 1 -C 20 -amino, or C 1 -C 20 -fluoroalkyl,

Ar 1 and Ar 2 are independently of each other

2,1,3-benzoselenadiazole-4,7-diyl,

2,3-dicyano-1,4-phenylene,

2,5-dicyano, 1,4-phenylene,

2,3-difluro-1,4-phenylene,

2,5-difluoro, 1,4-phenylene, or

2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro, 1,4-phenylene, all of which are unsubstituted, mono- or polysubstituted with R 1 as defined above

m1 and m2 are independently of each other 0 or 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein X in each occurrence is —S—, m1 or m2 is >0,

n is an integer >1, and

R 5 and R 6 independently of each other have one of the meanings of R 1 above or denote H halogen, —CH 2 Cl, —CHO, —CH═CH 2 , —SiR′R″R′″, —SnR′R″R′″, —BR′R″, —B(OR′)(OR″), —B(OH) 2 , or P-Sp-, wherein P is a polymerizable group and Sp is a spacer group or a single bond, and R′, R″ and R′″ are independently of each other H or an optionally substituted carbyl or hydrocarbyl group optionally comprising one or more hetero atoms, and R′ and R″ may also form a ring together with the hetero atom to which they are attached.

2. Polymer according to claim 1 , characterized in that the monomeric unit

is selected from the group consisting of the following subformulae:

wherein R 1-4 and n are as defined in claim 1 and Ar has one of the meanings of Ar 1 given in claim 1 .

3. Polymer according to claim 1 , selected of formula IIa1:

R 5 -chain-R 6   IIa1

wherein R 5 and R 6 are independently of each other identical or different groups which are H, halogen or —P-Sp-, wherein P is a polymerizable group and Sp is a spacer group or a single bond, or R 5 and R 6 denote —CH 2 Cl, —CHO, —CH═CH 2 , —SiR′R″R′″, —SnR′R″R′″, —BR′R″, —B(OR′)(OR″), —B(OH) 2 , wherein R′, R″ and R′″ are, independently of each other, H or an optionally substituted carbyl or hydrocarbyl group optionally comprising one or more hetero atoms, and R′ and R″ may also form a ring together with the hetero atom to which they are attached

and “chain” is a polymer chain selected from the group consisting of subformulae II1-II10 and II2a:

4. Polymer blend comprising one or more polymers according to claim 1 and one or more polymers, preferably selected from polymers having semiconducting, charge transport, hole/electron transport, hole/electron blocking, electrically conducting, photoconducting or light emitting properties.

5. Formulation comprising one or more polymers or polymer blends according to claim 1 and one or more solvents, preferably selected from organic solvents.

6. A method of making a charge transport, semiconducting, electrically conducting, photoconducting or light emitting material in optical, electrooptical, electronic, electroluminescent or photoluminescent component or device comprising employing a polymer of claim 1 therein.

7. Optical, electrooptical or electronic component or device comprising one or more polymers, polymer blends or formulations according to claim 1 .

8. Component or device according to claim 7 , characterized in that it is selected from the group consisting of organic field effect transistors (OFET), thin film transistors (TFT), integrated circuits (IC), logic circuits, capacitors, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, devices or components, organic light emitting diodes (OLED), organic light emitting transistors (OLET), flat panel displays, backlights of displays, organic photovoltaic devices (OPV), solar cells, laser diodes, photoconductors, photodetectors, electrophotographic devices, electrophotographic recording devices, organic memory devices, sensor devices, charge injection layers, charge transport layers or interlayers in polymer light emitting diodes (PLEDs), Schottky diodes, planarising layers, antistatic films, polymer electrolyte membranes (PEM), conducting substrates, conducting patterns, electrode materials in batteries, alignment layers, biosensors, biochips, security markings, security devices, and components or devices for detecting and discriminating DNA sequences.

9. Component or device according to claim 8 , which is a bulk heterojunction OPV device.

10. Process of preparing a polymer according to claim 1 , by subjecting one or more monomers of formula Ia, and optionally one or more monomers of formula R 7 —Ar 1 —R 8 and/or R 7 —Ar 2 —R 8 , to an aryl-aryl coupling reaction:

wherein U 1-4 , A 1-4 , Ar 1,2 , m1 and m2 have the meanings given in claim 1 , and R 7 and R 8 are selected from the group consisting of CI, Br, I, O-tosylate, O-triflate, O-mesylate, O-nonaflate, —SiMe 2 F, —SiMeF 2 , —O—SO 2 Z, —B(OZ 1 ) 2 , —CZ 2 ═C(Z 2 ) 2 , —C≡CH and —Sn(Z 3 ) 3 , wherein Z and Z 1-3 are selected from the group consisting of alkyl and aryl, each being optionally substituted, and two groups Z 1 may also form a cyclic group.

11. Monomer of formula Ia

wherein U 1-4 , A 1-4 , R 7,8 , Ar 1,2 , m1 and m2 are as defined in claim 10 .