High operational and environmental stability of high-mobility conjugated polymer field-effect transistors through the use of molecular additives

Mark Nikolka; Iyad Nasrallah; Bradley Daniel Rose; Mahesh Kumar Ravva; Katharina Broch; Aditya Sadhanala; David Harkin; Jerome Charmet; Michael Hurhangee; Adam Brown; Steffen Illig; Patrick Too; Jan Jongman; Iain McCulloch; Jean-Luc Bredas; Henning Sirringhaus

doi:10.1038/nmat4785

High operational and environmental stability of high-mobility conjugated polymer field-effect transistors through the use of molecular additives

Mark Nikolka, Iyad Nasrallah, Bradley Daniel Rose, Mahesh Kumar Ravva, Katharina Broch, Aditya Sadhanala, David Harkin, Jerome Charmet, Michael Hurhangee, Adam Brown, Steffen Illig, Patrick Too, Jan Jongman, Iain McCulloch, Jean-Luc Bredas, Henning Sirringhaus

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

373 Scopus citations

Abstract

Due to their low-temperature processing properties and inherent mechanical flexibility, conjugated polymer field-effect transistors (FETs) are promising candidates for enabling flexible electronic circuits and displays. Much progress has been made on materials performance; however, there remain significant concerns about operational and environmental stability, particularly in the context of applications that require a very high level of threshold voltage stability, such as active-matrix addressing of organic light-emitting diode displays. Here, we investigate the physical mechanisms behind operational and environmental degradation of high-mobility, p-type polymer FETs and demonstrate an effective route to improve device stability. We show that water incorporated in nanometre-sized voids within the polymer microstructure is the key factor in charge trapping and device degradation. By inserting molecular additives that displace water from these voids, it is possible to increase the stability as well as uniformity to a high level sufficient for demanding industrial applications.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	356-362
Number of pages	7
Journal	Nature Materials
Volume	16
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4785
State	Published - Dec 12 2016

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: We gratefully acknowledge financial support from Innovate UK (PORSCHED project) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council though a Programme Grant (EP/M005141/1). I.N. acknowledges studentship support from FlexEnable Ltd. K.B. gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (BR 4869/1-1). A.S. would like to acknowledge support from the India-UK APEX project. B.R., M.K.R. and J.-L.B. acknowledge the financial support from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), the KAUST Competitive Research Grant program, and the Office of Naval Research Global (Award N62909-15-1-2003); they also acknowledge the IT Research Computing Team and Supercomputing Laboratory at KAUST for providing computational and storage resources.

Access to Document

10.1038/nmat4785

Cite this

Nikolka, M., Nasrallah, I., Rose, B. D., Ravva, M. K., Broch, K., Sadhanala, A., Harkin, D., Charmet, J., Hurhangee, M., Brown, A., Illig, S., Too, P., Jongman, J., McCulloch, I., Bredas, J.-L., & Sirringhaus, H. (2016). High operational and environmental stability of high-mobility conjugated polymer field-effect transistors through the use of molecular additives. Nature Materials, 16(3), 356-362. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4785

@article{347ee4569fc84c16bfaa148d037b5991,

title = "High operational and environmental stability of high-mobility conjugated polymer field-effect transistors through the use of molecular additives",

abstract = "Due to their low-temperature processing properties and inherent mechanical flexibility, conjugated polymer field-effect transistors (FETs) are promising candidates for enabling flexible electronic circuits and displays. Much progress has been made on materials performance; however, there remain significant concerns about operational and environmental stability, particularly in the context of applications that require a very high level of threshold voltage stability, such as active-matrix addressing of organic light-emitting diode displays. Here, we investigate the physical mechanisms behind operational and environmental degradation of high-mobility, p-type polymer FETs and demonstrate an effective route to improve device stability. We show that water incorporated in nanometre-sized voids within the polymer microstructure is the key factor in charge trapping and device degradation. By inserting molecular additives that displace water from these voids, it is possible to increase the stability as well as uniformity to a high level sufficient for demanding industrial applications.",

author = "Mark Nikolka and Iyad Nasrallah and Rose, {Bradley Daniel} and Ravva, {Mahesh Kumar} and Katharina Broch and Aditya Sadhanala and David Harkin and Jerome Charmet and Michael Hurhangee and Adam Brown and Steffen Illig and Patrick Too and Jan Jongman and Iain McCulloch and Jean-Luc Bredas and Henning Sirringhaus",

note = "KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01 Acknowledgements: We gratefully acknowledge financial support from Innovate UK (PORSCHED project) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council though a Programme Grant (EP/M005141/1). I.N. acknowledges studentship support from FlexEnable Ltd. K.B. gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (BR 4869/1-1). A.S. would like to acknowledge support from the India-UK APEX project. B.R., M.K.R. and J.-L.B. acknowledge the financial support from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), the KAUST Competitive Research Grant program, and the Office of Naval Research Global (Award N62909-15-1-2003); they also acknowledge the IT Research Computing Team and Supercomputing Laboratory at KAUST for providing computational and storage resources.",

year = "2016",

month = dec,

day = "12",

doi = "10.1038/nmat4785",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "16",

pages = "356--362",

journal = "Nature Materials",

issn = "1476-1122",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",

number = "3",

}

Nikolka, M, Nasrallah, I, Rose, BD, Ravva, MK, Broch, K, Sadhanala, A, Harkin, D, Charmet, J, Hurhangee, M, Brown, A, Illig, S, Too, P, Jongman, J, McCulloch, I, Bredas, J-L & Sirringhaus, H 2016, 'High operational and environmental stability of high-mobility conjugated polymer field-effect transistors through the use of molecular additives', Nature Materials, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 356-362. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4785

TY - JOUR

T1 - High operational and environmental stability of high-mobility conjugated polymer field-effect transistors through the use of molecular additives

AU - Nikolka, Mark

AU - Nasrallah, Iyad

AU - Rose, Bradley Daniel

AU - Ravva, Mahesh Kumar

AU - Broch, Katharina

AU - Sadhanala, Aditya

AU - Harkin, David

AU - Charmet, Jerome

AU - Hurhangee, Michael

AU - Brown, Adam

AU - Illig, Steffen

AU - Too, Patrick

AU - Jongman, Jan

AU - McCulloch, Iain

AU - Bredas, Jean-Luc

AU - Sirringhaus, Henning

N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01 Acknowledgements: We gratefully acknowledge financial support from Innovate UK (PORSCHED project) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council though a Programme Grant (EP/M005141/1). I.N. acknowledges studentship support from FlexEnable Ltd. K.B. gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (BR 4869/1-1). A.S. would like to acknowledge support from the India-UK APEX project. B.R., M.K.R. and J.-L.B. acknowledge the financial support from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), the KAUST Competitive Research Grant program, and the Office of Naval Research Global (Award N62909-15-1-2003); they also acknowledge the IT Research Computing Team and Supercomputing Laboratory at KAUST for providing computational and storage resources.

PY - 2016/12/12

Y1 - 2016/12/12

N2 - Due to their low-temperature processing properties and inherent mechanical flexibility, conjugated polymer field-effect transistors (FETs) are promising candidates for enabling flexible electronic circuits and displays. Much progress has been made on materials performance; however, there remain significant concerns about operational and environmental stability, particularly in the context of applications that require a very high level of threshold voltage stability, such as active-matrix addressing of organic light-emitting diode displays. Here, we investigate the physical mechanisms behind operational and environmental degradation of high-mobility, p-type polymer FETs and demonstrate an effective route to improve device stability. We show that water incorporated in nanometre-sized voids within the polymer microstructure is the key factor in charge trapping and device degradation. By inserting molecular additives that displace water from these voids, it is possible to increase the stability as well as uniformity to a high level sufficient for demanding industrial applications.

AB - Due to their low-temperature processing properties and inherent mechanical flexibility, conjugated polymer field-effect transistors (FETs) are promising candidates for enabling flexible electronic circuits and displays. Much progress has been made on materials performance; however, there remain significant concerns about operational and environmental stability, particularly in the context of applications that require a very high level of threshold voltage stability, such as active-matrix addressing of organic light-emitting diode displays. Here, we investigate the physical mechanisms behind operational and environmental degradation of high-mobility, p-type polymer FETs and demonstrate an effective route to improve device stability. We show that water incorporated in nanometre-sized voids within the polymer microstructure is the key factor in charge trapping and device degradation. By inserting molecular additives that displace water from these voids, it is possible to increase the stability as well as uniformity to a high level sufficient for demanding industrial applications.

UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/622411

UR - http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat4785.html

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85003936068&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/nmat4785

DO - 10.1038/nmat4785

M3 - Article

C2 - 27941806

SN - 1476-1122

VL - 16

SP - 356

EP - 362

JO - Nature Materials

JF - Nature Materials

IS - 3

ER -

High operational and environmental stability of high-mobility conjugated polymer field-effect transistors through the use of molecular additives

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Research data supporting “High operational and environmental stability of high-mobility conjugated polymer field-effect transistors achieved through the use of molecular additives”

Cite this

High operational and environmental stability of high-mobility conjugated polymer field-effect transistors through the use of molecular additives

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Datasets

Research data supporting “High operational and environmental stability of high-mobility conjugated polymer field-effect transistors achieved through the use of molecular additives”

Cite this