Synthesis of polymeric organic semiconductors using semifluorinated polymer precursors Part A Polymer chemistry

The transesterification of 1,1,1,3,3,3‐hexafluoroisopropyl acrylate (HFIPA) homopolymers and block copolymers with methyl acrylate (MA) or n‐butyl acrylate (n‐BuA) were investigated for the efficient synthesis of p‐type and n‐type organic semiconductor acrylates. HFIPA, MA, and n‐BuA are readily prepared in a one‐pot synthesis by Cu(0) reversible deactivation radical polymerization in high yield with low dispersity to give poly(HFIPA)₁₀₀, PMA₁₀₀‐b‐poly(HFIPA)ₓ, and PnBuA₁₀₀‐b‐poly(HFIPA)ₓ (x = 100, 50,25). The transesterification of poly(HFIPA)₁₀₀ was also studied using ¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy. Based on this method, a series of eight homopolymers and three copolymers based on semiconductor motifs commonly found in organic light‐emitting diodes, organic thin‐film transistors, and organic photovoltaics were synthesized with narrow dispersity and conversions up to 99%. These experiments demonstrate that poly(HFIPA) can provide a useful building block in the synthesis of organic electronic materials, providing a simpler route to complex materials which may be challenging to access directly via controlled radical polymerization. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018, 56, 2183–2191