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Selective solution shearing deposition of high performance TIPS-pentacene polymorphs through chemical patterning

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Abstract

Methods for the solution deposition of organic semiconductors (OSCs) show great potential for the production of large-area, inexpensive, and flexible organic electronics. A solution deposition method called solution shearing has consistently been shown to yield thin film transistors with improved performance over those created via other solution-based approaches. However, the need for discrete, electronically isolated devices requires the parallel development of a facile means of pattern definition compatible with the solution shearing process. In our work, we use a simple chemical prepatterning method to enable the solution shearing deposition of the small molecule OSC TIPS-pentacene on substrates with feature sizes as small as 100 µm. Grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXD) was also used to confirm the existence of high performance TIPS-pentacene polymorphs in the patterned thin films. Mobilities as high as 1.13 cm2 V−1 s−1 were obtained on 400 µm wide patterns by depositing a high-performance, metastable polymorph of TIPS-pentacene.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This publication was partially supported by the National Science Foundation (DMR-1006989, DMR-1059020, and DMR-1303178), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-12-1-0190), and the Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford University. Z.B. acknowledges support from the David Filo and Jerry Yang Faculty Fellowship from Stanford University. Portions of this research were carried out at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, a national user facility operated by Stanford University on behalf of the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Stanford University, the Sponsors of the Global Climate and Energy Project, or others involved with the Global Climate and Energy Project.

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  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California, 94305, USA

    Gaurav Giri, Eric Miller & Zhenan Bao

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  1. Gaurav Giri
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Correspondence to Zhenan Bao.

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Giri, G., Miller, E. & Bao, Z. Selective solution shearing deposition of high performance TIPS-pentacene polymorphs through chemical patterning. Journal of Materials Research 29, 2615–2624 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.305

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