Single-Component Organic Semiconductor

Many organic semiconductors are comprised of more than two components such as electron-donating and electron-withdrawing molecules. However, these multicomponent systems have disadvantages such as instability to air, solvents, or heat treatment. BTQBT (1), which has both electron-donating and electron-withdrawing moieties in the same molecule, can be used as a single-component organic semiconductor.

1 has a high electron conductivity (8.3×10^-4 Scm^-1 : as a single crystal) derived from its large polarization. In addition, the crystal of 1 shows a Hall effect which is rarely observed in organic semiconductors. The X-ray crystal structural analysis reveals that every molecule forms a sheet-like network with short atomic contacts, which suggests that strong intermolecular interactions exist between the HOMO and LUMO.