Abstract
For wearable and implantable electronics applications, developing intrinsically stretchable polymer semiconductor is advantageous, especially in the manufacturing of large-area and high-density devices. A major challenge is to simultaneously achieve good electrical and mechanical properties for these semiconductor devices. While crystalline domains are generally needed to achieve high mobility, amorphous domains are necessary to impart stretchability. Recent progresses in the design of high-performance donor–acceptor polymers that exhibit low degrees of energetic disorder, while having a high fraction of amorphous domains, appear promising for polymer semiconductors. Here, a low crystalline, i.e., near-amorphous, indacenodithiophene-co-benzothiadiazole (IDTBT) polymer and a semicrystalline thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPPTT) are compared, for mechanical properties and electrical performance under strain. It is observed that IDTBT is able to achieve both a high modulus and high fracture strain, and to preserve electrical functionality under high strain. Next, fully stretchable transistors are fabricated using the IDTBT polymer and observed mobility ≈0.6 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 100% strain along stretching direction. In addition, the morphological evolution of the stretched IDTBT films is investigated by polarized UV–vis and grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction to elucidate the molecular origins of high ductility. In summary, the near-amorphous IDTBT polymer signifies a promising direction regarding molecular design principles toward intrinsically stretchable high-performance polymer semiconductor.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1905340 |
| Journal | Advanced Functional Materials |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 46 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 12 2019 |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledgements: This work was supported by Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Grant No. FA9550-18-1-0143) for financial support. M.N. acknowledges financial support from the European Commission through a Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship (EC Grant Agreement Number: 747461). H.T. was supported by an appointment to the Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program at Stanford University, administered by Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. S.Z. and X.G. thank the financial support from U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Science under award number DE-SC0019361 and National Science Foundation Office of Integrative Activities #1757220. J.M. acknowledges Samsung Scholarship for financial support. Part of this work was performed at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF), supported by the National Science Foundation under award ECCS-1542152. GIXD measurement was carried out at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL), a national user facility operated by Stanford University on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences.