Synthesis and Characterizations of Polythiophene Networks with Nonplanar BN Lewis Pair Building Blocks.

Doping the boron (B) element endowed organic π-conjugated polymers (OCPs) with intriguing optoelectronic properties. Herein, we introduce a new series of thienylborane-pyridine () Lewis pairs via the facile reactions between thienylborane and various pyridine derivatives. Particularly, we developed a "one-pot" synthetic protocol to access with an unstable 4-bromopyridine moiety. Polycondensations between the Lewis pairs and distannylated thiophene afforded a new series of BN-cross-linked polythiophenes (s). Experiments revealed that s exhibited highly uniform chemical structures, particularly the uniform chemical environment of B-centers. s showed good stability in the solid state. even maintained the uniform B-center under high temperature or moisture conditions. The studies further suggested that the presence of topological structures endowed the polymers with strong intramolecular charge separation character. As a proof of concept, a representative was tested as the catalyst for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.