Using Stable Radicals To Protect Pentacene Derivatives from Photodegradation

A radical solution: The photochemical instability and insolubility in organic solvents of pentacene derivatives prevent their use in molecular electronics. These issues were solved by using pentacene derivatives with stable radicals (Y=radical moiety, 1 a and 2 a) that have a lifetime of 2077 min in organic solvents under ambient light. The corresponding nonradical pentacene derivatives (Y=radical precursor, 1 b and 2 b) decay on exposure to light.