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Nanostructured surfaces frustrate polymer semiconductor molecular orientation.

Danvers E Johnston¹, Kevin G Yager, Htay Hlaing

¹Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory , Upton, New York 11973, United States.

|December 18, 2013

Summary

Nanostructured grating surfaces control polymer semiconductor alignment. This method frustrates typical parallel ordering, promoting perpendicular alignment for improved molecular configuration in thin films.

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Polymer Science
Nanotechnology

Background:

Thin films of polymer semiconductors, like poly(3-hexylthiophene) blended with phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester, exhibit natural molecular orientational ordering.
Planar films typically show polymer lamellar alignment parallel to the substrate.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how nanostructured grating surfaces influence molecular ordering in polymer semiconductor thin films.
To explore the potential of nanostructure-induced boundary conditions for controlling polymer orientation.

Main Methods:

Grazing incidence X-ray scattering (GIXS) measurements were employed.
Analysis focused on in-plane X-ray scattering relative to grating orientation.

Main Results:

Nanostructured grating surfaces (groove widths < 200 nm) frustrate natural polymer ordering.
Grating sidewall interactions strongly inhibit parallel alignment, favoring perpendicular orientation.
The parallel orientation population decreased from 30% to < 5% in a 400 nm film.
Polymer backbones were highly oriented within 10 degrees of parallel to the groove direction.

Conclusions:

Nanostructured gratings provide an effective method to control molecular orientation in polymer semiconductor films.
This approach enables achieving preferred equilibrium molecular configurations difficult to obtain with planar films.
The findings are crucial for optimizing the performance of organic electronic devices.