A novel design of donor–acceptor polymer semiconductors for printed electronics: application to transistors and gas sensors. Issue 25 (6th May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cheon, Hyung Jin; Li, Xinlin; Jeong, Yong Jin; Sung, Min Jae; Li, Zhijun; Jeon, Inha; Tang, Xiaowu; Girma, Henok Getachew; Kong, Hoyoul; Kwon, Soon-Ki; An, Tae Kyu; Kim, Se Hyun; Kim, Yun-Hi
• Is Part Of: Journal of materials chemistry. Volume 8:Issue 25(2020)
• Page Start: 8410
• Page End: 8419
• Publication Date: 2020-05-06
• Subjects: Materials -- Periodicals; Chemistry, Analytic -- Periodicals; Optical materials -- Research -- Periodicals; Electronics -- Materials -- Research -- Periodicals; 543.0284
• DOI: 10.1039/d0tc01341b
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2050-7526

Abstract

Abstract : This work reports the molecular engineering of polymeric semiconductors to get highly soluble inks, which enables the uniform deposition of semiconductors and contributes to high-performance transistor and sensor devices. Abstract : Jet printing of π-conjugated polymers synthesized through simple solution processes has been considered to be promising for the direct patterning of organic semiconductors on large-area substrates. However, it is still challenging to achieve direct patterns of high-performance polymer semiconductors through electrohydrodynamic jet printing because of the relatively low solubilities of donor–acceptor π-conjugated polymers which have high charge carrier mobilities and operation stabilities. A novel synthesis is proposed to obtain donor–acceptor π-conjugated polymer semiconductors suitable for printed electronics while exhibiting high performance of hole transport properties. The backbones and side chains of the donor–acceptor π-conjugated polymers are fully engineered to (1) achieve balanced jetting conditions and (2) provide time to induce the intermolecular self-assembly during the continuous printing. The printed polymers have similar morphologies and molecular orderings to those of spin-coated semiconductor films, which provide highly uniform electrical performances of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) with a saturation mobility similar to those of the spin-coated films, up to 3.07 cm 2 V −1 s −1 . Furthermore, these high performances and operational stabilities suggest feasibility of the printed OFETs to be applied to ammonia gas sensors. Our study guides the design of π-conjugated polymers suitable for large-area printing processes to contribute to printed electronics.