Thiophene-Based Trimers and Their Bioapplications: An Overview

Abstract

Certainly, the success of polythiophenes is due in the first place to their outstanding electronic properties and superior processability. Nevertheless, there are additional reasons that contribute to arouse the scientific interest around these materials. Among these, the large variety of chemical modifications that is possible to perform on the thiophene ring is a precious aspect. In particular, a turning point was marked by the diffusion of synthetic strategies for the preparation of terthiophenes: the vast richness of approaches today available for the easy customization of these structures allows the finetuning of their chemical, physical, and optical properties. Therefore, terthiophene derivatives have become an extremely versatile class of compounds both for direct application or for the preparation of electronic functional polymers. Moreover, their biocompatibility and ease of functionalization make them appealing for biology and medical research, as it testifies to the blossoming of studies in these fields in which they are involved. It is thus with the willingness to guide the reader through all the possibilities offered by these structures that this review elucidates the synthetic methods and describes the full chemical variety of terthiophenes and their derivatives. In the final part, an in-depth presentation of their numerous bioapplications intends to provide a complete picture of the state of the art.

Shifting from UV to Visible-Light the Activity of Organic Photoinitiators via the Covalent Grafting of Polyoxometalates

“…Overall, this work paves the way for the elaboration of a large range of easy-to-synthesize visible-light polymerization photoinitiators. Future work will focus on the preparation of related hybrids incorporating thiophene derivatives, which present very interesting photocatalytic and biological properties . Also, while we report here on the synthesis of POM derivatives covalently bonded to one organic fragment, imido-Lindqvist POMs incorporating up to six organic fragments can be obtained .…”

“…Future work will focus on the preparation of related hybrids incorporating thiophene derivatives, which present very interesting photocatalytic and biological properties. 36 Also, while we report here on the synthesis of POM derivatives covalently bonded to one organic fragment, imido-Lindqvist POMs incorporating up to six organic fragments can be obtained. 37 Investigation of the effect of the accumulation of organic photoinitiators around a single Lindqvist unit on the properties of the hybrid systems thus seems very appealing.…”

Small thiophene fluorophores in live cells promote protein self‐assembly into nanostructured fluorescent and electroactive microfibers

“…I. E. Palamà and coworkers demonstrate that small linear terthiophene derivatives—very versatile building blocks employed in numerous bio‐applications, from photodynamic therapy to cancer treatment, [ 39 ] and able to polymerize enzymatically in vivo along the roots of living plants, [ 40 ] can promote the formation of functional microfibers in live cells. Moreover, the properties of the microfibers can be modulated by changing the functionalization at the sulfur atom.…”

Organic Conjugated Trimers with Donor–Acceptor–Donor Structures for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Generation Application

“…polymers (CPs)/small molecules composed of alternating electron donor (D) and acceptor (A) moieties have triggered massive interest for organic electronic applications such as organic photovoltaic (OPV) [1] and organic fieldeffect transistor (OFET) [2,3] owing to their facile processing, relatively high absorption, stability, and accessible redox potentials. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Introducing D and A groups to the conjugated backbone of the molecule would be possible to significantly increase the photon response and intramolecular charge transfer upon excitation. [11][12][13] However, conjugated small organic molecules with D-A-D structures are rarely explored for their photocatalytic solar fuel production although they possess distinct advantages compared with conjugated polymers.…”