Electrical conductivity of π-conjugated organoboron polymers upon n-type doping

The organoboron polymers containing boron atom in their main-chain are an electron deficient pi-conjugated system, where pi-conjugation length is extended via the vacant p-orbital of the boron atom. When the polymer with fluorenylene unit was doped with triethylamine (TEA) and I-2, its electrical conductivity was increased to 10(-6) and 10(-8)S/em from an insulator regime, respectively. In the polymer with phenylene unit, the values of 10(-7) and 10(-8)S/cm were achieved with TEA and I-2. The results indicate that the present organoboron main-chain polymers are a novel class of n-type pi-conjugated polymers.