Computational and Experimental Study of Oligofuran-Based Donor-Acceptor-Donor Triads with Strong Near-IR Emission

The electronic and optical properties of organic electronic materials can be tailored by careful design of donor and acceptor moieties. While many oligomers display strong fluorescence in the blue and green spectral region, the fluorescence quantum efficiency drops dramatically as one approaches the red and Near-IR spectral region. We have previously introduced oligofurans, which display significantly higher quantum efficiencies compared with their thiophene analogs. [i]

In this work, we attempt to shift the strong fluorescence observed for oligofurans to the red and Near-IR spectral region by introducing donor-acceptor-donor triads, consisting of oligofurans as donors and benzothiadiazole as acceptor. Using a combined computational and experimental study, we report the photophysical and electronic properties of these oligomers, and in particular, their quantum efficiencies in the red and near-IR spectral range.

[i] O. Gidron, N. Varsano, L. J. W. Shimon, G. Leitus, M. Bendikov, Chem. Commun. 2013, 49, 6256–6258.