Conjugated polymers can broadly be described as materials which have a structure composed of repeating monomeric units that show extended electronic communication along the backbone. The extended pi-conjugated nature of these materials gives them a set of unique electronic and optical properties, and has lead to their application in a multitude of various technologies. Of specific interest is the application of these materials in various organic electronics applications, such as solution processed plastic solar cells, light emitting diodes, and field effect transistors. Herein is described the synthesis of a class of well-defined, highly active organometallic initiators for use in controlled polymer synthesis. The polymers prepared using the nickel based initiators in Grignard metathesis polymerization posses the following characteristics: rapid generation of high molecular weight polymers, low polydispersity, linear relation between monomer conversion and molecular weight growth, and the selective transfer of an initiating moiety from the organometallic initiator to one polymer chain end. This initiator was then used to prepare a new class of biosensor materials wherein the polymer had a well defined biosensing end group.

Additionally, a series of small molecule donors have been developed that have shown promise in a wide variety of organic electronic applications. These materials can broadly be described as having a D'ADAD' type structure where D, D', and A correspond to electron rich and electron deficient aromatic heterocycles, respectively. By tuning the identity of these groups and the side-chains attached to them, one can subtly influence the optical, electronic, and physical properties of the materials. These materials were investigated via single crystal x-ray diffraction studies to gain insight into how changes to the molecule structure such as heteroatom regioisomerism and isoelectronic substitutions effected the molecular structure. These changes in molecular structure were then correlated to changes in the bulk, optical, and electronic properties. Finally, the single crystal x-ray structure of a high performing solar cell material was investigated via ab initio methods in an attempt to gain insight into why this particular material preformed so well in solar cell devices, and whether design rules for future small molecule semiconductors could be formulated.