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Assembly and alignment of conjugated polymers: materials design, processing, and applications

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Abstract

Conjugated polymers (CPs) are widely investigated because of their intriguing optical and semiconducting properties in various optoelectronic device applications. Because of the one-dimensional p-orbital overlap along the main chain, CPs exhibit strong anisotropy in optoelectronic characteristics. Therefore, macroscopic assembly and alignment of CPs are essential to fully utilize their potential properties in real device applications. Here we review various processing strategies and material design principles for efficient CP alignment that result in highly anisotropic optical and electronic characteristics. Furthermore, we thoroughly review the incorporation of aligned CPs layers in organic light-emitting diodes, organic thin film transistors, and organic photovoltaic devices. The achieved macroscopic CP alignment has increased the optoelectronic properties and greatly improved device performance.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Basic Energy Sciences, as part of the Center for Solar and Thermal Energy Conversion in Complex Materials, an Energy Frontier Research Center (grant no. DE-SC0000957).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Macromolecular Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109, USA

    Kyeongwoon Chung

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109, USA

    Youngchang Yu, Min Sang Kwon & Ji Ho Youk

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109, USA

    John Swets

  4. Macromolecular Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109, USA

    Jinsang Kim

  5. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109, USA

    Jinsang Kim

  6. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109, USA

    Jinsang Kim

  7. Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109, USA

    Jinsang Kim

  8. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109, USA

    Jinsang Kim

  9. Department of Applied Organic Materials Engineering, Inha University, Incheon, 402-751, Korea

    Ji Ho Youk

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  1. Kyeongwoon Chung
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Correspondence to Jinsang Kim.

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Chung, K., Yu, Y., Kwon, M.S. et al. Assembly and alignment of conjugated polymers: materials design, processing, and applications. MRS Communications 5, 169–189 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2015.25

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