Development of polyacenes and heteroacenes

Polyacene is a class of linear and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Polyacenes have attracted extensive attention and study during the past decades, due to its unique property of linear delocalized π-system. The intrinsic ability to align and pattern into highly ordered crystalline phase is a prerequistite for integrating them into large-scale functional devices. Recently, enormous efforts have brought significant progress in the development of polyacenic materials and the fabrication of high performance optoelectronic devices based on these polyacenes. Especially, the development of polyacenic materials is almost the only driving force for high performance organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Here, the review will focus on the influence of polyacenes and heteroacenes molecular structure in electrical properties and device performances. Finally, the prospect of the development of polyacenes and heteroacenes was discussed.