Polymeric phosphorus- containing sensors – PolyPCS

The objective of this proposal is to incorporate phosphorus- based electronic components into organic field effect transistors (OFET's), and to evaluate these devices as sensors for organophosphate pesticides and Weapons of Mass Destruction surrogates (WMDS). The work will also provide optimized methodologies for the preparation and scale-up of the starting phosphorus monomers, structure- activity relationships for their performance within the devices, and full studies of their physical properties.
Recently, there have been widespread studies of organophosphorus species, mainly phospholes and their benzoannelated analogues, as components for optical devices. These studies have mainly been focused upon their use in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), but phosphole- containing organic solar cells (OSCs), dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and other electrochromic devices have also been developed. The incorporation of phosphorus as a modulator of the carbon-containing diene component leads to advantages in the areas of bandgaps and the modulation of optical and redox properties of phosphole- containing materials, and this has notably allowed white light OLED emitters to be designed successfully. Partner 2 provided the first example, and has been a major contributor to ongoing progress in this area.
Given well- proven electro-optical benefits associated with the phosphole component, and a compatibility with electrical device manufacture that also has been clearly demonstrated, the proposal presented here aims to establish (non-annelated) phospholes as components in a new but related sphere: sensing devices based upon OFETs, and to delineate in detail their potential within this area. The project is intended to go from new synthetic protocols for phosphole monomers, through their characterization and optimization for electronic applications, and on to their incorporation into OFET's for sensing purposes. The benefits that are likely to arise from the full and appropriate exploitation of these building blocks in sensor technology are likely to be widespread; however, the current proposal is specifically directed towards evaluating the potential of such phosphole- containing devices with respect to the detection of phosphonate esters and their derivatives. This class of compounds includes organophosphorus pesticides and Weapons of Mass Destruction. The security problems arising from the current global political climate mean that the rapid detection of these compounds within both military and civilian spheres is an issue of immediate societal importance, and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.