Air/Liquid Interfacial Self-Assembled Intrinsically Stretchable IDT-BT Film Combining a Deliberate Transfer Adherence Strategy for Stretchable Electronics.

Abstract

Indacenodithiophene-benzothiadiazole (IDT-BT) has emerged as one of the most promising candidates for stretchable electronics due to its good stretchability and high mobility. Here, we present an air/liquid interface self-assembly method for the stretchable IDT-BT films and design an air-side transfer adherence strategy for improving the carrier mobility of IDT-BT. By controlling the cosolvent ratio in solution and the solvent evaporation rate, the large-scale intrinsically stretchable IDT-BT film with the diameter as high as ∼3 cm was self-assembled at the air/liquid interface. The resulting stretchable film with lightweight and good uniformity could be easily transferred to curved objects such as flexible 3 M tape, glass ball, and seashell. It is found that the transfer adherence strategy of the semiconductor film significantly affects the carrier transport. The transfer adherence from air-side can effectively decrease the number of the adsorbed water molecules at semiconductor/dielectric interface, which presents the mobility as high as 2.98 cm2 V-1 s-1. Based on the air/liquid interface self-assembled IDT-BT film, the peeling process of the film for preparation of full stretchable transistors could be eliminated. The resulting intrinsically stretchable transistor exhibits mobility higher than that of the transistor with a conventional spin-coated film. Our research provides new pathways for preparing the stretchable films and intrinsically stretchable organic field-effect transistors and shows the promising potential of the air/liquid interface self-assembly strategy for stretchable electronics.