Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of Poly[bis(4-phenyl)(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)amine] (PTAA) with Well-Defined End Groups and Narrow Dispersity

Abstract

A series of PTAA (poly[bis(4-phenyl)(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)amine] polymers were synthesized using a Ni(0) mediated Yamamoto coupling. Polymers with different molecular weights and only one series of well-defined end groups were obtained with various amounts of a tailormade endcapper. This level of structural uniformity has not yet been described for PTAA. By using microwave heating it was possible to shorten the reaction time from at least one day to 30 minutes. The synthetic strategy allows the separation of single PTAA oligomers with up to 6 repeating units and polymer fractions with low dispersities from 1.06 to 1.17 by using preparative size exclusion chromatography (SEC). The carrier mobilities of the PTAA oligomers and polymers were derived from organic field effect transistors (OFETs). Mobilities increase with increasing molecular weight of the PTAAs and are higher compared to commercially available PTAA samples.