Synthetic Routes to Thiol-Functionalized Organic Semiconductors for Molecular and Organic Electronics

Over the few last decades, the potential of using thiol functionalities to induce the self-assembly of various kinds of molecules on metal surfaces has been widely demonstrated. In particular, pi-conjugated molecules can undergo self-assembly on metallic surfaces to create electroactive supramolecular layers, which have found important applications in organic and molecular electronics. For this reason, the synthesis of thiol-functionalized conjugated molecules has been the object of extensive research and many routes have been developed for their synthesis. This Focus Review provides an overview of the state-of-the-art methods for the syntheses of organic semiconductors that are decorated with pendant thiol groups for applications in self-assembly and molecular and organic electronics. Particular attention is given to synthetic strategies based on organometallic cross-coupling reactions for the preparation of compounds with extended conjugation.