Solvent-Assisted Friction Transfer Method for Fabricating Large-Area Thin Films of Semiconducting Polymers with Edge-On Oriented Extended Backbones.

Abstract

Recent past has witnessed huge scientific efforts aiming toward enhancing in-plane charge transport by unidirectional orientation of conjugated polymer (CP) backbones adopting various techniques. However, in most of the existing methods, excess amounts of toxic halogenated solvents and preaggregation in solution are inevitable, which are the main bottlenecks toward large-scale fabrication. Solvent-assisted friction transfer (SAFT) is being reported as a novel method and improvisation over conventional friction transfer to expand its versatility. In this method, application of a small amount of the solvent (∼3 μL) during drawing not only leads to the entirely changed film morphology and molecular orientation but also addresses the existing substrate compatibility issues. Utilizing poly[2,5-bis(3-tetradecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]-thiophene] as a representative CP under SAFT technique, films with extended backbone and edge-on orientation was successfully fabricated, which was confirmed by various characterization tools such as X-ray diffraction, polarized absorption, and polarized Raman spectroscopies. Further, anisotropic charge transport in these films was investigated by fabricating organic field-effect transistors and the role of contact resistance was also studied. Slight solvent use, compatibility with various substrates, and film fabrication with controlled orientation, and after validation of its generality on different CPs, SAFT can be expected to open new avenues in the area of printed electronics.