Benzodithiophene based π-conjugated macrocycles: synthesis, morphology and electrochemical characterization.

A 7,8-didodecyloxybenzo[1,2-b:4,3-b']dithiophene (BdT-Dod) containing a macrocycle was synthesized from a thiophene capped BdT-Dod comonomer through a Ti(iv) mediated McMurry reaction and characterized by (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Additionally, the morphological characterization was performed by AFM and SEM to investigate the self-aggregation properties. The macrocycle underwent self-assembly in the solid state to form fibers on the Si/SiO2 surface with a length in the μm range and a thickness of about 400 nm.