Direct Arylation: A Greener Synthesis of Anthraquinone−Naphthalene diimide‐Based Small Chromophores for Applications in Organic Thin Film Transistors

In this paper, we report the design and synthesis of three naphthalene diimide‐ (NDI) and anthraquinone‐ (AQ) based organic chromophores derived from direct arylation reactions; NDI−AQ, AQ−NDI−AQ and NDI−AQ−NDI. Compared to classic cross‐coupling reactions, this method reduced the number of synthetic and purification steps. The chemical structures, photophysical and electrochemical properties of these molecules were characterized using UV‐vis spectroscopy, fluorescence emission spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The optoelectronic properties of the three dyes enabled the fabrication of organic thin film transistors (OTFTs). The fabricated OTFTs displayed good n‐type semiconducting properties, with electron mobilities ( ) of 1.5–4.2×10 −4 cm 2 V −1 s −1 .