Hexacene Diimides.

Acene imides are expected to possess smaller band gaps than homologous acenes while maintaining good solubility and stability. However, the design and synthesis of large acene imides are still a big challenge. Herein, we report a one-pot synthesis of hexacene diimides (HDI) by double aromatic annulation between zirconabenzocyclopentene and tetrabrominated naphthalene diimides. HDIs with branched alkyl chains exhibit very good solubility, stability, and much smaller band gaps than hexacene. Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) based on HDI microribbons exhibit excellent ambipolar transport behavior with the highest electron mobility of 2.17 cm2 V-1 s-1 and hole mobility of 0.30 cm2 V-1 s-1 under ambient conditions.