Abstract
In this work, we study for the first time the effect of a poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) polymer to control the crystal growth of solution-processed, small-molecule organic semiconductors and to improve the device performance of organic thin film transistors (OTFTs). A benchmark semiconductor 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene (TIPS pentacene) was employed to blend with the polymer additive. The TIPS pentacene blend film with 5% PVDF-HFP by weight ratio exhibited a significant morphology enhancement with crystals strictly aligned in long-range order. In particular, it showed an average grain width of 69.98 μm and a misorientation angle of 6.6°, which is a 3.5-fold increase and a 7-fold reduction as compared to the pristine TIPS pentacene film. The bottom-gate, top-contact TIPS pentacene OTFTs with PVDF-HFP polymer additive were fabricated. Electrical characterization showed a hole mobility of up to 0.1 cm2/Vs with 5% PVDF-HFP. The performance improvement of TIPS pentacene/PVDF-HFP based OTFTs can be attributed to the reduced amount of charge trap centers at the enlarged grain width, alleviated crystal misorientation and increased areal coverage. This facile approach to blend PVDF-HFP additive to align crystals and improve orientation in long-range order as demonstrated in this work can be useful for controlling the crystallization and charge transport of other small-molecule organic semiconductors for application in organic electronics on large-scale flexible substrate.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chu M, Fan JX, Yang SJ, Liu D, Ng CF, Dong HL, Ren AM, Miao Q (2018) Halogenated Tetraazapentacenes with Electron mobility as high as 27.8 cm(2) V-1 s(−1) in solution-processed n-channel organic thin-film transistors. Adv Mater 30:1803467
Bi S, Li Q, Yan Y, Asare-Yeboah K, Ma T, Tang C, Ouyang Z, He Z, Liu Y, Jiang C (2019) Layer-dependent anisotropic frictional behavior in two-dimensional monolayer hybrid perovskite/ITO layered heterojunctions. Phys Chem Chem Phys 21:2540–2546
He ZR, Lopez N, Chi XL, Li DW (2015) Solution-based 5, 6, 11, 12-tetrachlorotetracene crystal growth for high-performance organic thin film transistors. Org Electron 22:191–196
da Rocha CT, Haase K, Zheng YC, Loffler M, Hambsch M, Mannsfeld SCB (2018) Solution coating of small molecule/polymer blends enabling ultralow voltage and high-mobility organic transistors. Adv Electron Mater 4:1800141
Bi S, He ZR, Chen JH, Li DW (2015) Solution-grown small-molecule organic semiconductor with enhanced crystal alignment and areal coverage for organic thin film transistors. AIP Adv 5:077170
Bi S, Li Y, He ZR, Ouyang ZL, Guo QL, Jiang CM (2019) Self-assembly diketopyrrolopyrrole-based materials and polymer blend with enhanced crystal alignment and property for organic field-effect transistors. Org Electron 65:96–99
Cho SY, Ko JM, Lim J, Lee JY, Lee C (2013) Inkjet-printed organic thin film transistors based on TIPS pentacene with insulating polymers. J Mater Chem C 1:914–923
Sele CW, Kjellander BKC, Niesen B, Thornton MJ, van der Putten J, Myny K, Wondergem HJ, Moser A, Resel R, van Breemen A, van Aerle N, Heremans P, Anthony JE, Gelinck GH (2009) Controlled deposition of highly ordered soluble Acene thin films: effect of morphology and crystal orientation on transistor performance. Adv Mater 21:4926–4931
Asare-Yeboah K, Frazier RM, Szulczewski G, Li D (2014) Temperature gradient approach to grow large, preferentially oriented 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene crystals for organic thin film transistors. J Vac Sci Technol B 32:052401
Asare-Yeboah K, Bi S, He ZR, Li DW (2016) Temperature gradient controlled crystal growth from TIPS pentacene-poly(alpha-methyl styrene) blends for improving performance of organic thin film transistors. Org Electron 32:195–199
He ZR, Xiao K, Durant W, Hensley DK, Anthony JE, Hong KL, Kilbey SM, Chen JH, Li DW (2011) Enhanced performance consistency in nanoparticle/TIPS Pentacene-based organic thin film transistors. Adv Funct Mater 21:3617–3623
Headrick RL, Wo S, Sansoz F, Anthony JE (2008) Anisotropic mobility in large grain size solution processed organic semiconductor thin films. Appl Phys Lett 92:3
Sakamoto K, Ueno J, Bulgarevich K, Miki K (2012) Anisotropic charge transport and contact resistance of 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene field-effect transistors fabricated by a modified flow-coating method. Appl Phys Lett 100:123301
Park JH, Lim H, Cheong H, Lee KM, Sohn HC, Lee G, Im S (2012) Anisotropic mobility of small molecule-polymer blend channel in organic transistor: characterization of channel materials and orientation. Org Electron 13:1250–1254
Keum CM, Bae JH, Kim MH, Park HL, Payne MM, Anthony JE, Lee SD (2013) Topography-guided spreading and drying of 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)-pentacene solution on a polymer insulator for the field-effect mobility enhancement. Appl Phys Lett 102:193307
Hwang DK, Fuentes-Hernandez C, Berrigan JD, Fang YN, Kim J, Potscavage WJ, Cheun H, Sandhage KH, Kippelen B (2012) Solvent and polymer matrix effects on TIPS-pentacene/polymer blend organic field-effect transistors. J Mater Chem 22:5531–5537
He ZR, Chen JH, Sun ZZ, Szulczewski G, Li DW (2012) Air-flow navigated crystal growth for TIPS pentacene-based organic thin-film transistors. Org Electron 13:1819–1826
Chen JH, Tee CK, Shtein M, Martin DC, Anthony J (2009) Controlled solution deposition and systematic study of charge-transport anisotropy in single crystal and single-crystal textured TIPS pentacene thin films. Org Electron 10:696–703
Akkerman HB, Li HY, Bao ZN (2012) TIPS-pentacene crystalline thin film growth. Org Electron 13:2056–2062
Wade J, Steiner F, Niedzialek D, James DT, Jung Y, Yun DJ, Bradley DDC, Nelson J, Kim JS (2014) Charge mobility anisotropy of functionalized pentacenes in organic field effect transistors fabricated by solution processing. J Mater Chem C 2:10110–10115
Kim CS, Lee S, Gomez ED, Anthony JE, Loo YL (2008) Solvent-dependent electrical characteristics and stability of organic thin-film transistors with drop cast bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene. Appl Phys Lett 93
Lamport ZA, Barth KJ, Lee H, Gann E, Engmann S, Chen H, Guthold M, McCulloch I, Anthony JE, Richter LJ, DeLongchamp DM, Jurchescu OD (2018) A simple and robust approach to reducing contact resistance in organic transistors. Nat Commun 9
Liu C, Xu Y, Noh YY (2015) Contact engineering in organic field-effect transistors. Mater Today 18:79–96
Lu RM, Han Y, Zhang WM, Zhu XX, Fei ZP, Hodsden T, Anthopoulos TD, Heeney M (2018) Alkylated indacenodithieno 3,2-b thiophene-based all donor ladder-type conjugated polymers for organic thin film transistors. J Mater Chem C 6:2004–2009
Wong CY, Cotts BL, Wu H, Ginsberg NS (2015) Exciton dynamics reveal aggregates with intermolecular order at hidden interfaces in solution-cast organic semiconducting films. Nat Commun 6:7
Park M, Min Y, Lee YJ, Jeong U (2014) Growth of long Triisopropylsilylethynyl Pentacene (TIPS-PEN) Nanofibrils in a polymer thin film during spin-coating. Macromol Rapid Commun 35:655–660
He ZR, Chen JH, Keum JK, Szulczewski G, Li DW (2014) Improving performance of TIPS pentacene-based organic thin film transistors with small-molecule additives. Org Electron 15:150–155
Chen JH, Subramanian S, Parkin SR, Siegler M, Gallup K, Haughn C, Martin DC, Anthony JE (2008) The influence of side chains on the structures and properties of functionalized pentacenes. J Mater Chem 18:1961–1969
Anthony JE, Brooks JS, Eaton DL, Parkin SR (2001) Functionalized pentacene: improved electronic properties from control of solid-state order. J Am Chem Soc 123:9482–9483
Park SK, Jackson TN, Anthony JE, Mourey DA (2007) High mobility solution processed 6,13-bis(triisopropyl-silylethynyl) pentacene organic thin film transistors. Appl Phys Lett 91:063514
Lu C, Lee WY, Shih CC, Wen MY, Chen WC (2017) Stretchable polymer dielectrics for low-voltage-driven field-effect transistors. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 9:25522–25532
Senanayak SP, Narayan KS (2014) Strategies for fast-switching in all-polymer field effect transistors. Adv Funct Mater 24:3324–3331
Wang C, Lee WY, Kong DS, Pfattner R, Schweicher G, Nakajima R, Lu C, Mei JG, Lee TH, Wu HC, Lopez J, Diao Y, Gu XD, Himmelberger S, Niu WJ, Matthews JR, He MQ, Salleo A, Nishi Y, Bao ZN (2015) Significance of the double-layer capacitor effect in polar rubbery dielectrics and exceptionally stable low-voltage high transconductance organic transistors. Sci Rep 5
He ZR, Li DW, Hensley DK, Rondinone AJ, Chen JH (2013) Switching phase separation mode by varying the hydrophobicity of polymer additives in solution-processed semiconducting small-molecule/polymer blends. Appl Phys Lett 103:113301
He ZR, Shaik S, Bi S, Chen JH, Li DW (2015) Air-stable solution-processed n-channel organic thin film transistors with polymer-enhanced morphology. Appl Phys Lett 106:183301
Nicolas Y, Castet F, Devynck M, Tardy P, Hirsch L, Labrugere C, Allouchi H, Toupance T (2012) TIPS-triphenodioxazine versus TIPS-pentacene: enhanced electron mobility for n-type organic field-effect transistors. Org Electron 13:1392–1400
Choi MH, Jang J (2012) Effect of SAM layer on bias-stability of inkjet printed TIPS pentacene thin-film transistor. Curr Appl Phys 12:E6–E9
Chen JH, Tee CK, Shtein M, Anthony J, Martin DC (2008) Grain-boundary-limited charge transport in solution-processed 6,13 bis(tri-isopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene thin film transistors. J Appl Phys 103:114513
Chen JH, Shao M, Xiao K, He ZR, Li DW, Lokitz BS, Hensley DK, Kilbey SM, Anthony JE, Keum JK, Rondinone AJ, Lee WY, Hong SY, Bao ZA (2013) Conjugated polymer-mediated polymorphism of a high performance, small-molecule organic semiconductor with tuned intermolecular interactions, enhanced long-range order, and charge transport. Chem Mater 25:4378–4386
Goto O, Tomiya S, Murakami Y, Shinozaki A, Toda A, Kasahara J, Hobara D (2012) Organic single-crystal arrays from solution-phase growth using micropattern with nucleation control region. Adv Mater 24:1117–1122
Diao Y, Tee BCK, Giri G, Xu J, Kim DH, Becerril HA, Stoltenberg RM, Lee TH, Xue G, Mannsfeld SCB, Bao ZN (2013) Solution coating of large-area organic semiconductor thin films with aligned single-crystalline domains. Nat Mater 12:665–671
He Z, Zhang Z, Bi S (2019) Nanoscale alignment of semiconductor crystals for high-fidelity organic electronics applications. Appl Nanosci
Kim DH, Lee DY, Lee HS, Lee WH, Kim YH, Han JI, Cho K (2007) High-mobility organic transistors based on single-crystalline microribbons of triisopropylisilylethynl pentacene via solution-phase self-assembly. Adv Mater 19:678–682
Murtaza G, Ahmad I, Chen HZ, Wu JK (2014) Study of 6,13-bis(tri-isopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene (TIPS-pentacene crystal) based organic field effect transistors (OFETs). Synth Met 194:146–152
Kim DH, Lee DY, Lee SG, Cho K (2012) High-mobility organic single-crystal microtubes of soluble Pentacene semiconductors with hollow tetragonal structures. Chem Mater 24:2752–2756
He Z, Asare-Yeboah K, Zhang Z, Bi S (2019) Self-assembly crystal microribbons with nucleation additive for high-performance organic thin film transistors. Jpn J Appl Phys 58:061009
Acknowledgments
S. Bi would like to thank Dalian University of Technology, China DUT16RC(3)051. A part of this research was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
He, Z., Zhang, Z. & Bi, S. Long-range crystal alignment with polymer additive for organic thin film transistors. J Polym Res 26, 173 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-019-1842-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-019-1842-1