TY - JOUR
T1 - Complementary Semiconducting Polymer Blends for Efficient Charge Transport
AU - Zhao, Yan
AU - Zhao, Xikang
AU - Roders, Michael
AU - Qu, Ge
AU - Diao, Ying
AU - Ayzner, Alexander L.
AU - Mei, Jianguo
PY - 2015/10/27
Y1 - 2015/10/27
N2 - Charge transport in polymeric thin films is a complicated process, which involves a multitude of coupled electronic events. Because of the growing appeal of semiconducting polymers in organic electronics, it makes the fundamental understanding of charge transport increasingly important. On the other hand, it urges the solution of the processability problem, frequently associated with high-performance polymers. In this study, we introduce complementary semiconducting polymer blends (c-SPBs), aiming to provide solutions for both the fundamental understanding of charge transport and the processability problem. The c-SPBs contain a highly crystalline matrix polymer with intentionally placed conjugation-break spacers (CBSs) along the polymer backbone, thus eliminating intrachain transport, and a tie chain polymer that is a fully conjugated polymer, restoring intrachain transport by connecting π-crystalline aggregates in the matrix polymer. The results show that the addition of as little as 1 wt % tie chain polymer into the matrix polymer induces a nearly 2 order of magnitude improvement in charge carrier mobility from ∼0.015 to 1.14 cm2 V-1 s-1, accompanied by substantial lowering of activation energies from 100.1 to 64.6 meV. The morphological characterizations and electrical measurements confirm that tie chains are able to build the connectivity between crystalline aggregates, leading to efficient charge transport in the polymer blend films. Furthermore, this study suggests that c-SPBs can be a new platform for designing high-mobility electronic materials with enhanced solution processability for future organic electronics.
AB - Charge transport in polymeric thin films is a complicated process, which involves a multitude of coupled electronic events. Because of the growing appeal of semiconducting polymers in organic electronics, it makes the fundamental understanding of charge transport increasingly important. On the other hand, it urges the solution of the processability problem, frequently associated with high-performance polymers. In this study, we introduce complementary semiconducting polymer blends (c-SPBs), aiming to provide solutions for both the fundamental understanding of charge transport and the processability problem. The c-SPBs contain a highly crystalline matrix polymer with intentionally placed conjugation-break spacers (CBSs) along the polymer backbone, thus eliminating intrachain transport, and a tie chain polymer that is a fully conjugated polymer, restoring intrachain transport by connecting π-crystalline aggregates in the matrix polymer. The results show that the addition of as little as 1 wt % tie chain polymer into the matrix polymer induces a nearly 2 order of magnitude improvement in charge carrier mobility from ∼0.015 to 1.14 cm2 V-1 s-1, accompanied by substantial lowering of activation energies from 100.1 to 64.6 meV. The morphological characterizations and electrical measurements confirm that tie chains are able to build the connectivity between crystalline aggregates, leading to efficient charge transport in the polymer blend films. Furthermore, this study suggests that c-SPBs can be a new platform for designing high-mobility electronic materials with enhanced solution processability for future organic electronics.
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b03349
DO - 10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b03349
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84945386909
VL - 27
SP - 7164
EP - 7170
JO - Chemistry of Materials
JF - Chemistry of Materials
SN - 0897-4756
IS - 20
ER -