van den Bersselaar Bart W L, Cattenstart Elisabeth H W, Elangovan Kavinraaj Ella, Yen-Chi Chen, de Waal Bas F M, van der Tol Joost, Diao Ying, Meijer E W, Vantomme Ghislaine
Laboratory of Macromolecular and Organic Chemistry and Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology P.O. Box 513 5600MB Eindhoven The Netherlands.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Urbana Illinois 61801 USA.
J Mater Chem C Mater. 2024 Apr 24;12(18):6637-6644. doi: 10.1039/d4tc00875h. eCollection 2024 May 9.
Donor-acceptor polymeric semiconductors are crucial for state-of-the-art applications, such as electronic skin mimics. The processability, and thus solubility, of these polymers in benign solvents is critical and can be improved through side chain engineering. Nevertheless, the impact of novel side chains on backbone orientation and emerging device properties often remains to be elucidated. Here, we investigate the influence of elongated linear and branched discrete oligodimethylsiloxane (DMS) side chains on solubility and device performance. Thereto, diketopyrrolopyrrole-thienothiophene polymers are equipped with various DMS pendants (PDPPTT-Si) and subsequently phase separated into lamellar domains. The introduction of a branching point in the siloxane significantly enhanced the solubility of the polymer, as a result of increased backbone distortion. Simultaneously, the charge carrier mobility of the polymers decreased by an order of magnitude upon functionalization with long and/or branched siloxanes. This work unveils the intricate balance between processability and device performance in organic semiconductors, which is key for the development of next-generation electronic devices.
供体-受体型聚合物半导体对于诸如电子皮肤模拟物等先进应用至关重要。这些聚合物在良性溶剂中的可加工性以及由此产生的溶解性至关重要，并且可以通过侧链工程加以改善。然而，新型侧链对主链取向和新兴器件性能的影响往往仍有待阐明。在此，我们研究了细长的线性和支化离散低聚二甲基硅氧烷（DMS）侧链对溶解性和器件性能的影响。为此，将二酮吡咯并吡咯-噻吩并噻吩聚合物配备各种DMS侧基（PDPPTT-Si），随后相分离成层状域。由于主链扭曲增加，硅氧烷中引入分支点显著提高了聚合物的溶解性。同时，在用长链和/或支化硅氧烷功能化后，聚合物的电荷载流子迁移率下降了一个数量级。这项工作揭示了有机半导体中可加工性和器件性能之间的复杂平衡，这是下一代电子器件开发的关键。
