Morphology Control in PDVT-10/DTCP Hybrid Films via Meniscus-Guided Cooperative Crystallization for High-Performance...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Organic Electronics
• Polymer Chemistry

Background:

• Conjugated polymers are crucial for organic electronics.
• Controlling film morphology is key to enhancing charge transport.
• Photoresponsive dopants offer tunable electronic properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of photoresponsive dopant isomers on polymer film morphology and charge transport.
• To explore the potential of meniscus-guided coating (MGC) for creating aligned hybrid films.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of photocontrollable organic field-effect transistors (OFETs).

Main Methods:

• Meniscus-guided coating (MGC) for film preparation.
• Polarized optical microscopy (POM), grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) for structural characterization.
• Fabrication and characterization of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs).

Main Results:

• Both open-ring (DTCP-o) and closed-ring (DTCP-c) dopant isomers modulated film morphology and facilitated crystallization.
• DTCP-c doping enhanced charge transport, reaching 2.44 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at 10 wt %.
• DTCP-o, an insulating molecule, increased PDVT-10 mobility to 3.23 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ due to alignment and favorable energy level alignment.

Conclusions:

• Photoresponsive dopants can act as morphology-modulating additives in conjugated polymer films.
• MGC combined with dopant engineering enables precise control over film alignment and electronic properties.
• Photoswitchable dopants offer a pathway for developing optically tunable electronic devices like photocontrollable OFETs.