Influence of Structural Variation on the Solid-State Properties of Diketopyrrolopyrrole-Based Oligophenylenethiophenes: Single-Crystal Structures, Thermal Properties, Optical Bandgaps, Energy Levels, Film Morphology, and Hole Mobility

Five new compounds, based on diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) and phenylene thiophene (PT) moieties, were synthesized to investigate the effect of structural variations on solid state properties, such as single-crystal structures, optical absorption, energy levels, thermal phase transitions, film morphology, and hole mobility. The molecular structures were modified by means of (i) backbone length by changing the number of thiophenes on both sides of DPP, (ii) alkyl substitution (n-hexyl or ethylhexyl) on DPP, and (iii) the presence of an n-hexyl group at the end of the molecular backbone. These DPP-based oligophenylenethiophenes were systematically characterized by UV–visible spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), cyclic voltammetry (CV), ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and hole-only diodes. Single-crystal structures were provided to probe insight into structure–property relationships at a molecule level resolution. This work demonstrates the significance of alkyl substitution as well as backbone length in tuning material’s solid-state properties.