New Bimetallic Tetrathiafulvalene Building Blocks and Self-Assembled, Two-Dimensional Conductors Derived from Regioregular, Head-to-Tail Coupled Polythiophenes

Abstract

Of paramount importance in the development of new advanced materials, is the design and synthesis of well-defined molecular and polymeric building blocks. These blocks can be assembled and the resultant material’s physical properties characterized. The physical properties of the material can then act as a guide toward the redesign of the building blocks, in order to optimize a particular property. It is clear that the optimization of electronic, optical, and magnetic properties are coupled very strongly to the molecular orientation in the three dimensional architecture, which controls the solid state orbital connectivity. The solid state orbital connectivity determines electronic band structure, local magnetic interactions, and polarizability. These fundamental properties are at the heart of electrical conductivity, bulk magnetism, and optical non-linearities respectively, found in numerous inorganic, polymeric, and organic materials. Despite the fact that interesting building blocks continue to be prepared, the engineering design and synthesis of solids with desirable three dimensional arrangements remains a difficult problem in solid state chemistry [1–3].