The Marriage of Metallacycle Transfer Chemistry with Suzuki–Miyaura Cross-Coupling To Give Main Group Element-Containing Conjugated Polymers

A versatile
and general synthetic route for the synthesis of conjugated
main group element-based polymers, previously inaccessible by conventional
means, is reported. These polymers contain five-membered chalcogenophene
rings based on S, Se, and Te, and we demonstrate that optoelectronic
properties can be readily tuned via controlled atom substitution chemistry.
In addition, regioregular hybrid thiophene–selenophene–tellurophene
and selenophene–fluorene copolymers were synthesized to provide
a further illustration of the scope of the presented metallacycle
transfer/cross-coupling polymerization method.