Providing a Window into the Phase Behavior of Semiconducting Polymers

Abstract

The targeted assembly of a wealth of functional architectures for soft photonics and electronics relies on a rigorous understanding of semiconducting polymer phase behavior. While many useful correlations have been established in the field of commodity plastics, unifying theories for their semiconducting counterparts are, however, more challenging to develop because of the rich phase behavior frequently displayed by these macromolecules, due in part to their complex chemical structures typically based on relatively rigid backbones and elaborate side-chain motifs. Solid-state structure formation and resulting properties are therefore especially sensitive to thermal and temporal parameters during processing, rendering device fabrication a challenging task that too often relies on time-consuming trial-and-error procedures. To understand the thermodynamic and kinetic factors of plastic semiconductor solidification and, for example, thin-film growth relevant for device fabrication, detailed knowledge of the intricacies of macromolecular semiconductors’ phase behavior must be gained and ideally combined with temperature/composition, temperature/confinement, and/or time/temperature/transformation- phase diagrams. This will open pathways toward a knowledge and methodology platform for the controlled materials assembly of soft electronics/photonics systems very much in analogy to the approaches used in metallurgy and the inorganic electronic materials field. In turn, a step change in how we design and process soft electronic products might be achieved, with impact on the broader soft matter area.