Design Principles for Enhancing Both Carrier Mobility and Stretchability in Polymer Semiconductors via Lewis Acid...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Polymer Chemistry
• Organic Electronics

Background:

• The increasing demand for skin-like electronics necessitates polymer semiconductors (PSCs) with both stretchability and high electrical performance.
• Achieving a balance between mechanical robustness and high carrier mobility in PSCs is a significant challenge.
• Current PSCs often compromise electrical properties for enhanced mechanical flexibility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel doping strategy for stretchable PSCs to simultaneously improve carrier mobility and mechanical properties.
• To investigate the structure-property relationships governing the effectiveness of Lewis acid doping in enhancing PSC performance.
• To establish design principles for high-performance, stretchable polymer semiconductors.

Main Methods:

• Systematic investigation of tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane (BCF) as a Lewis acid dopant for PSCs.
• Analysis of structural modifications, including lamellar stacking distance and crystallinity, in response to BCF doping.
• Evaluation of carrier mobility and mechanical properties (crack onset strain) of doped PSCs.
• Assessment of long-term stability under mechanical strain.

Main Results:

• BCF doping significantly enhances carrier mobility and stretchability in PSCs.
• Increasing lamellar stacking distance and reducing crystallinity optimizes BCF incorporation for improved performance.
• A two-fold increase in carrier mobility and a 100% crack onset strain were achieved with minimal BCF addition.
• Doped PSCs demonstrated stable mobility retention over 1000 cycles of 30% strain.

Conclusions:

• Tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane (BCF) doping offers an effective method to decouple carrier mobility from mechanical properties in PSCs.
• The identified structural principles provide a roadmap for designing next-generation stretchable electronic materials.
• This approach opens new possibilities for high-performance, durable polymer semiconductors in flexible and wearable electronics.