Parallel Alignment of Conjugated Rod Molecules

Significance

The authors report a method for creating two-dimensional materials that can align linear, conjugated molecules along the backbone of a linear polyimide. The key feature of the design is the consecutive 90° twist angles along the polyimide backbone that ensured adjacent polymers were held in the same plane. Synthesis of the quinquephenyl-derived co-monomer 2 was achieved by a Suzuki reaction of 1 with 4-dodecylphenyl­boronic acid and subsequent saponification. The polymeric material was synthesized by heating the tetraacid 2 with 2,5-di-tert-butyl-1,4-phenylene­diamine for four days at 100 °C in acetic acid.