Design of soluble hyperbranched polythiophenes with tailor-made optoelectronic properties

Hyperbranched polythiophenes were prepared via a simple one-pot synthesis approach based on oxidative coupling of branched conjugated monomers. Only small variations in the building unit and architecture lead to large differences of absorption and photoluminescence properties. Interestingly, soluble hyperbranched polythiophenes with relatively small molecular weights show enhanced absorption at low and high wavelengths compared to linear analogues, such as poly(3-hexyl thiophenes) with high molecular weights. With this versatile approach we present a method to design tailor made, functional materials with potential applications in optoelectronics.