The position of nitrogen in N-heteropentacenes matters.

An exploratory study on novel silylethynylated N-heteropentacenes, which have their N atoms on the terminal rings of the pentacene backbone, is reported. This study leads to both p- and n-channel organic thin-film transistors with high field-effect mobility and also reveals that the position of the N atoms plays an important role in tuning the structures and properties of organic semiconductors based on N-heteropentacenes.