DOI: 10.1002/open.201500059
Novel Carbazole (Cbz)-Based Carboxylated Functional
Monomers: Design, Synthesis, and Characterization
Ejabul Mondal,* Jean-Paul Lellouche,* and Maria Naddaka[a]
A series of novel functional carbazole (Cbz)-based carboxylated
monomers were synthesized and characterized. A Clauson-
Kaas procedure, a deprotection step, amide coupling, and hy-
drolysis were utilized as key chemical reactions towards the
multistep synthesis of monomers in good to excellent isolated
yields. The design strategy was further extended to complex
carbazole-COOH monomers incorporated arylazo groups as
photoreactive moieties. In addition, photoreactive hybrid car-
bazole (Cbz)-pyrrole (Pyr)-based carboxylated monomers, com-
prising a pyrrole core linking a carbazole and a photoreactive
phenylazide or benzophenone moiety through an amide
spacer in the molecular structure, were also synthesized. The
latter can be utilized for surface modification of polymeric
films in their monomeric form or as polymeric microparticles
(MPs).
Introduction
The development of nanomaterials has gained tremendous re-
search interest in recent years due to their potential applica-
tions in the various fields, such as biomedical, imaging, sens-
ing, drug delivery, therapy systems, and so forth.[1] In this
regard, the design and fabrication of polymeric nanoparticles/
microparticles (NPs/MPs) have attracted considerable attention
because of the availability of a wide range of polymerization
methods, of monomeric source materials, and of tunable NP/
MP surface functionalities, which make these particles attrac-
tive for numerous applications.[2] Conducting polymer (CP)-
based nanomaterials such as polyaniline (PANI), polypyrrole
(polypyr), and polythiophene (polyTh) have been already ex-
tensively investigated and well documented.[3] In contrast, pol-
ycarbazole-based particles are less reported.[4–7] This can be at-
tributed to higher oxidation potentials of carbazole-based ma-
terials, making them less prone to oxidation and causing inef-
fective oxidative electrochemical/chemical polymerizations. An-
other reason for the lack of research into this class of material
is that carbazole-based monomers are not easy to synthesize.
Carbazole-based materials have emerged as new and attrac-
tive advanced materials having been used in organic light-
emitting diodes (OLEDs),[8] organic solar cells (OSCs),[9] chemical
sensors,[10] photoconductive materials,[11] and electrochromic
materials.[12] In addition, carbazole derivatives are potential al-
kaloids.[13] Polycarbazole polymers as conducting materials
have several advantageous properties since the carbazole het-
erocycle is chemically stable and can be easily modified at the
C3, C6, and 9 positions that can improve thermal stability and
impart good electrooptical properties on the resulting poly-
mers. Furthermore, the moderate oxidation potential of carba-
zole-containing compounds makes them promising hole trans-
porting materials in optoelectronic applications. Usually, carba-
zole-based materials are designed through p-conjugation den-
drimers, oligomers or polymers. Along this line, carbazole-
based small molecules are also emerging as promising materi-
als for use in OSCs,[14] solution processed/thermal evaporation-
based OLEDs,[15,16] and thermally activated delay fluorescence
(TADF) materials.[17]
Recently, we reported a novel strategy for designing new
carbazole-based materials and the formation of the corre-
sponding well-shaped spherical poly-carbazole (polyCbz)-
based MPs using an oxidative liquid-phase polymerization
method.[18] These earlier studies revealed that various aromatic
functionalities can be introduced into polyCbz-based MPs in-
cluding phenyl bromide and carbazole heterocycle. We special-
ly designed a number of photoreactive molecules by extend-
ing our previous protocol and investigated their reactivity to-
wards highly chemically stable poly(2-chloro-paraxylelene) (Par-
ylene C) films.[19] Our efforts continue towards the design and
development of new Cbz-based monomers/polymeric nano-
materials with tailored physical, chemical and biological prop-
erties.
[a] Dr. E. Mondal, Prof. J.-P. Lellouche, Dr. M. Naddaka
Laboratory of Nanoscale Materials & System, Department of Chemistry
Nanomaterial Research Center, Institute of Nanotechnology & Advanced
Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 5290002 (Israel)
Herein, we report the design, synthesis, and full characteriza-
tion of a novel class of Cbz-and Cbz-pyrrole (Pyr)-based hybrid
oxidizable monomers following multistep synthetic strategies.
By replacing aromatic components at the w-position of (S)-
methyl 6-amino-2-carbazol-9-yl-hexanoate, we synthesized vari-
ous monomers incorporating arylazo- and photoreactive moi-
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under
ꢀ 2015 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
ChemistryOpen 2015, 4, 489 – 496
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