Open AccessVariety of Ordered Patterns in Donor–Acceptor Polymer Semiconductor Films Crystallized from Solution
Author(s) -
Shunpu Li,
Jin Li,
Youngtea Chun,
Pawan Kumar Shrestha,
Xin Chang,
Mike Pivnenko,
Daping Chu
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
acs applied materials and interfaces
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.535
H-Index - 228
eISSN - 1944-8252
pISSN - 1944-8244
DOI - 10.1021/acsami.1c00079
Subject(s) - materials science , acceptor , nucleation , polymer , semiconductor , organic semiconductor , crystallization , crystallite , thin film , chemical physics , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , chemical engineering , composite material , condensed matter physics , organic chemistry , chemistry , physics , engineering , metallurgy
A huge challenge is to control the nucleation of crystallites/aggregates in the solution during polymer film formation to generate desired structures. In this work, we investigate crystallization of P(NDI2OD-T2), a donor-acceptor polymer semiconductor, with controlled solution flow along the contact line between the drying film and solution through a seesaw-like pivoting of samples during polymer drying. By controlling the pivoting frequency/amplitude, various types of line patterns can be observed: (I) an array of fishbone-like stripes oriented in the film-growth direction; (II) the pinning-depinning of contact line (PDCL)-mechanism-defined patterned wires along the contact line; and (III) periodic twined crystalline line pattern oriented in the direction of the contact line. The rich variety of pattern formation observed is attributed to the distinctiveness of the donor-acceptor conjugated polymer structure. The result measured from thin-film transistors made of the generated films/structures showed that the charge mobility of P(NDI2OD-T2) does not change much with the film morphology, which supports recent controversy over the charge-transportation mechanism of some donor-acceptor polymer semiconductors.