Synthesis of the extended phenacene molecules, [10]phenacene and [11]phenacene, and their performance in a field-effect transistor

The [10]phenacene and [11]phenacene molecules have been synthesized using a simple repetition of Wittig reactions followed by photocyclization. Sufficient amounts of [10]phenacene and [11]phenacene were obtained, and thin-film FETs using these molecules have been fabricated with SiO2 and ionic liquid gate dielectrics. These FETs operated in p-channel. The averaged measurements of field-effect mobility, <μ>, were 3.1(7) × 10-2 and 1.11(4) × 10-1 cm2 V-1 s-1, respectively, for [10]phenacene and [11]phenacene thin-film FETs with SiO2 gate dielectrics. Furthermore, [10]phenacene and [11]phenacene thin-film electric-double-layer (EDL) FETs with ionic liquid showed low-voltage p-channel FET properties, with <μ> values of 3(1) and 1(1) cm2 V-1 s-1, respectively. This study also discusses the future utility of the extremely extended π-network molecules [10]phenacene and [11]phenacene as the active layer of FET devices, based on the experimental results obtained.