Kinetically Controlled Crystallization in Conjugated Polymer Films for High-Performance Organic Field-Effect Transistors

Abstract

Ordering of semiconducting polymers in thin films from the nano to microscale is strongly correlated with charge transport properties as well as organic field-effect transistor performance. This paper reports a method to control nano to microscale ordering of poly{[N,N′-bis(2-octyldodecyl)-naphthalene-1,4,5,8-bis(dicarboximide)-2,6-diyl]-alt-5,5′-(2,2′-bithiophene)} (P(NDI2OD-T2)) thin films by precisely regulating the solidification rate from the metastable state just before crystallization. The proposed simple but effective approach, kinetically controlled crystallization, achieves optimized P(NDI2OD-T2) films with large polymer domains, long range ordered fibrillar structures, and molecular orientation preferable for electron transport leading to dramatic morphological changes in both polymer domain sizes at the micrometer scale and molecular packing structures at nanoscales. Structural changes significantly increase electron mobilities up to 3.43 ± 0.39 cm2 V−1 s−1 with high reliability, almost two orders of enhancement compared with devices from naturally dried films. Small contact resistance is also obtained for electron injection (0.13 MΩ cm), low activation energy (62.51 meV), and narrow density of states distribution for electron transport in optimized thin films. It is believed that this study offers important insight into the crystallization of conjugated polymers that can be broadly applied to optimize the morphology of semiconducting polymer films for solution processed organic electronic devices. © 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim