Recent research in the area of functional π-conjugated materials has shown that the incorporation of main group elements such as boron, silicon, selenium, tellurium, and phosphorus in particular, is an efficient strategy to obtain sustainable materials with intriguing properties for a host of practical applications ranging from organic light emitting devices (OLEDs), field-effect transistors (OFETs), photovoltaics (OPVs), batteries, to sensors and metal-free catalysts for chemical transformations.