| Conjugated polymers are promising materials that can be used in organic electronic devices, such as organic field effect transistors, organic solar cells, and organic light emitting diodes. They have some advantages over their inorganic counterparts such as solution proccesability, light weight, and easy device fabrication. These properties largely reduce the manufacturing cost of these devices. Different functional moieties can be incorporated in conjugated polymers to tune the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels, thus to control the band gap and to enhance their opto-electronic properties. These properties include good solubility, improved packing in solid state, and enhanced solar energy absorption. Pyrimidine has been incorporated in conjugated polymers due to its important properties such as electron withdrawing nature, pH sensitivity, and ability to participate in hydrogen bonding and coordinate various metal ions. Due to the electron deficient nature, pyrimidine polymers have low lying LUMO levels and have been applied in organic electronic devices as n-type semiconductors. Out of many functional moieties, thiophene ring is one of the most used units in conjugated polymers, because poly(thiophene)s possess good electronic properties. By incorporating alkoxy substituents on poly(thiophene)s the HOMO energy level of the polymers can be increased, resulting in low band gap polymers. These polymers are promising materials to be used in organic electronic devices.;Chapter 1 discusses conjugated polymers used in organic electronic devices, their charge transport mechanisms, doping to improve the conductivity, and working mechanisms of organic electronic devices such as organic field effect transistors and solar cells. It also describes the potential use of these materials as a precursor for graphene. It further discusses pyrimidine conjugated polymers and poly(alkoxythiophene)s.;Chapter 2 discusses the aldol condensation reactions to incorporate pyrimidine in conjugated polymers. It describes the synthesis, characterizations and optoelectronic properties of pyrimidine containing conjugated polymers.;Chapter 3 discusses the synthesis of nitrogen containing graphitic materials by using pyrimidine conjugated polymers as the precursor. It describes the synthesis and characterizations of precursor polymers, nitrogen doped graphitic materials, and the application of these materials in polymer/graphene hybrid field effect transistors.;Chapter 4 discusses the synthesis of poly(alkoxythiophene)s by McCullough method. It describes the synthesis, characterization of these polymers and oxidative doping to increase conductivity. |
