Boosting the ambipolar field-effect transistor performance of a DPP-based copolymer via electrohydrodynamic-jet direct writing

Abstract

The electrohydrodynamic jet (EHD) printing technique allows for the direct printing of semiconducting polymer solutions to form desired patterns. Herein, an EHD-printed diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based copolymer, PTDPPSe-SiC5, was used as the active layer for the fabrication of ambipolar organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Under optimized EHD conditions, the measured hole and electron mobilities of the PTDPPSe-SiC5 OFETs were 0.75 and 1.08cm2/(Vs), which led to a better electrical performance than that displayed by OFETs containing the same polymer but deposited using the spin-coating technique. Morphological analyses were carried out to help explain this difference in OFET performance, and showed the deployment of the EHD printing technique resulting in an improved polymer alignment and crystallinity, despite being performed without the use complex guided surface templates or additional pre- or post-deposition processing.