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Thiazoloisoindigo-based Polymer Semiconductors: Synthesis, Structure-Property Relationship, Charge Carrier Polarity, and Field-Effect Transistor Performance

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Abstract

Developing new polymeric semiconductors with excellent device performance is essential for organic electronics. Herein, we synthesized two new thiazoloisoindigo (TzII)-based polymers, namely, P(TzII-dTh-dTh) and P(TzII-dTh-dTz), by copolymerizing thiophene-flanked TzII with bithiophene and bithiazole, respectively. Owing to the more electron-deficient nature of bithiazole than bithiophene, P(TzII-dTh-dTz) possesses deeper LUMO/HOMO levels of −3.45/−5.47 eV than P(TzII-dTh-dTh) (−3.34/−5.32 eV). The organic field-effect transistor (OFET) devices based on P(TzII-dTh-dTh) exhibited p-type behaviors with an average hole mobility value as high as 1.43 cm2·V−1·s−1, while P(TzII-dTh-dTz) showed typical ambipolar characteristics with average hole and electron mobilities of 0.38 and 0.56 cm2·V−1·s−1. In addition, we compared the performances of both polymers with other TzII-based polymers reported in our previous work, and showed that the charge carrier polarity can be manipulated by adjusting the number of the thiophene units between the acceptor unit. As the increase of the number of thiophene rings, charge carrier polarity shifts from electron-dominated ambipolar transport to hole-dominated ambipolar transport and then to unipolar hole transport in OFETs, which provides an effective molecular design strategy for further optimization of polymer OFET performance.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22102086 and 22075105) and the start-up funding from Jianghan University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Chemical Materials and Devices, Ministry of Education, School of Optoelectronic Materials & Technology, Jianghan University, Wuhan, 430056, China

    Bo-Wen Li, Mei-Hua Liu, Zhi-Gao Li, Long Sang, Zi-Han Xiong, Biao Xiao & Xiao-Bo Wan

  2. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, the Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Miao Xiong & Jian Pei

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  1. Bo-Wen Li
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  2. Miao Xiong
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  4. Zhi-Gao Li
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  9. Xiao-Bo Wan
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Correspondence to Bo-Wen Li or Xiao-Bo Wan.

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Thiazoloisoindigo-based Polymer Semiconductors: Synthesis, Structure-Property Relationship, Charge Carrier Polarity, and Field-Effect Transistor Performance

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Li, BW., Xiong, M., Liu, MH. et al. Thiazoloisoindigo-based Polymer Semiconductors: Synthesis, Structure-Property Relationship, Charge Carrier Polarity, and Field-Effect Transistor Performance. Chin J Polym Sci 42, 24–31 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-023-3043-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-023-3043-y

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