Functionalized acenes and heteroacenes for organic electronics

An overview is given of the functionalization of linearly fused aromatic systems specifically for their application in electronic devices, with special focus on reports describing crystal structure/device property relationships in linearly fused acenes and heteroacenes. Emphasis is on functionalized anthracenes, tetracene, pentacene and higher heteroacenes. Across a wide variety of derivatives, it is shown that materials with extensive face-to-face interactions generally exhibit hole mobilities superior to those systems with strictly edge-to-face interactions.