Fused electron deficient semiconducting polymers for air stable electron transport.

Conventional semiconducting polymer synthesis typically involves transition metal-mediated coupling reactions that link aromatic units with single bonds along the backbone. Rotation around these bonds contributes to conformational and energetic disorder and therefore potentially limits charge delocalisation, whereas the use of transition metals presents difficulties for sustainability and application in biological environments. Here we show that a simple aldol condensation reaction can prepare polymers where double bonds lock-in a rigid backbone conformation, thus eliminating free rotation along the conjugated backbone.

Dithiopheneindenofluorene (TIF) Semiconducting Polymers with Very High Mobility in Field-Effect Transistors.

The charge-carrier mobility of organic semiconducting polymers is known to be enhanced when the energetic disorder of the polymer is minimized. Fused, planar aromatic ring structures contribute to reducing the polymer conformational disorder, as demonstrated by polymers containing the indacenodithiophene (IDT) repeat unit, which have both a low Urbach energy and a high mobility in thin-film-transistor (TFT) devices. Expanding on this design motif, copolymers containing the dithiopheneindenofluorene repeat unit are synthesized, which extends the fused aromatic structure with two additional phenyl rings, further rigidifying the polymer backbone.

Direct Uniaxial Alignment of a Donor-Acceptor Semiconducting Polymer Using Single-Step Solution Shearing.

The alignment of organic semiconductors (OSCs) in the active layers of electronic devices can confer desirable properties, such as enhanced charge transport properties due to better ordering, charge transport anisotropy for reduced device cross-talk, and polarized light emission or absorption. The solution-based deposition of highly aligned small molecule OSCs has been widely demonstrated, but the alignment of polymeric OSCs in thin films deposited directly from solution has typically required surface templating or complex pre- or postdeposition processing. Therefore, single-step solution processing and the charge transport enhancement afforded by alignment continue to be attractive.

Diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-Based Donor-Acceptor Polymers for Selective Dispersion of Large-Diameter Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes.

Low-bandgap diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based polymers are used for the selective dispersion of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNTs). Through rational molecular design to tune the polymer-SWCNT interactions, highly selective dispersions of s-SWCNTs with diameters mainly around 1.5 nm are achieved.