Oligofurans

This chapter describes the recent progress in the study of long oligofurans, with emphasis on their redox properties. It discusses the synthesis of oligofurans followed by a discussion of their reactivity in the Diels-Alder cycloadition. The chapter also discusses the properties of oligofurans in the neutral state, mainly those considered significant for organic electronic materials (i.e., molecular ordering, planarity, aromaticity, and photophysical properties and conjugation), and the properties of cationic oligofurans are discussed separately. It reports the recent investigation of stable and conducting polyfurans, followed by a discussion of oligofuran-containing molecules as active materials in devices. The authors have attained stable and conducting polyfurans by using long oligo-furans with solubilizing groups, which have relatively low oxidation potential, as the starting monomers for polymerization. Recently, several groups have used oligofuran-containing polymers as active materials in solar cell and organic field effect transistors (OFETs) devices.