Impact of polymorphism on the optoelectronic properties of a low-bandgap semiconducting polymer

Mengmeng Li; Ahmed Hesham Balawi; Pieter J. Leenaers; Lu Ning; Gaël H.L. Heintges; Tomasz Marszalek; Wojciech Pisula; Martijn M. Wienk; Stefan C.J. Meskers; Yuanping Yi; Frédéric Laquai; René A.J. Janssen

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10519-z

Impact of polymorphism on the optoelectronic properties of a low-bandgap semiconducting polymer

Mengmeng Li, Ahmed Hesham Balawi, Pieter J. Leenaers, Lu Ning, Gaël H.L. Heintges, Tomasz Marszalek, Wojciech Pisula, Martijn M. Wienk, Stefan C.J. Meskers, Yuanping Yi, Frédéric Laquai, René A.J. Janssen^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

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

103 Scopus citations

Abstract

Polymorphism of organic semiconducting materials exerts critical effects on their physical properties such as optical absorption, emission and electrical conductivity, and provides an excellent platform for investigating structure–property relations. It is, however, challenging to efficiently tune the polymorphism of conjugated polymers in aggregated, semi-crystalline phases due to their conformational freedom and anisotropic nature. Here, two distinctly different semi-crystalline polymorphs (β₁ and β₂) of a low-bandgap diketopyrrolopyrrole polymer are formed through controlling the solvent quality, as evidenced by spectroscopic, structural, thermal and charge transport studies. Compared to β₁, the β₂ polymorph exhibits a lower optical band gap, an enhanced photoluminescence, a reduced π-stacking distance, a higher hole mobility in field-effect transistors and improved photocurrent generation in polymer solar cells. The β₁ and β₂ polymorphs provide insights into the control of polymer self-organization for plastic electronics and hold potential for developing programmable ink formulations for next-generation electronic devices.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	2867
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	10
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10519-z
State	Published - Dec 1 2019

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 747422, from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (016. Veni.192.106), from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB12020200), and from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The research also received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) (Grant Agreement no. 607585, project OSNIRO), the European Research Council (ERC Grant Agreement No. 33903), and the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science (Gravity program 024.001.035). T.M. acknowledges the Foundation for Polish Science co-financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund (First TEAM/2017–3/26). The authors acknowledge Beamline 9 of the DELTA electron storage ring in Dortmund for GIWAXS measurements. The authors thank Mateusz Brzezinski for the discussion about GIWAXS analysis, and Christ Weijtens for UPS measurements.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemistry
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
General
General Physics and Astronomy

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-019-10519-z

Cite this

@article{a2552f28757b4778822f45b9b38cad0c,

title = "Impact of polymorphism on the optoelectronic properties of a low-bandgap semiconducting polymer",

abstract = "Polymorphism of organic semiconducting materials exerts critical effects on their physical properties such as optical absorption, emission and electrical conductivity, and provides an excellent platform for investigating structure–property relations. It is, however, challenging to efficiently tune the polymorphism of conjugated polymers in aggregated, semi-crystalline phases due to their conformational freedom and anisotropic nature. Here, two distinctly different semi-crystalline polymorphs (β1 and β2) of a low-bandgap diketopyrrolopyrrole polymer are formed through controlling the solvent quality, as evidenced by spectroscopic, structural, thermal and charge transport studies. Compared to β1, the β2 polymorph exhibits a lower optical band gap, an enhanced photoluminescence, a reduced π-stacking distance, a higher hole mobility in field-effect transistors and improved photocurrent generation in polymer solar cells. The β1 and β2 polymorphs provide insights into the control of polymer self-organization for plastic electronics and hold potential for developing programmable ink formulations for next-generation electronic devices.",

author = "Mengmeng Li and Balawi, {Ahmed Hesham} and Leenaers, {Pieter J.} and Lu Ning and Heintges, {Ga{\"e}l H.L.} and Tomasz Marszalek and Wojciech Pisula and Wienk, {Martijn M.} and Meskers, {Stefan C.J.} and Yuanping Yi and Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric Laquai and Janssen, {Ren{\'e} A.J.}",

note = "Funding Information: This project has received funding from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sk{\l}odowska-Curie grant agreement No. 747422, from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (016. Veni.192.106), from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB12020200), and from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The research also received funding from the European Community{\textquoteright}s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) (Grant Agreement no. 607585, project OSNIRO), the European Research Council (ERC Grant Agreement No. 33903), and the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science (Gravity program 024.001.035). T.M. acknowledges the Foundation for Polish Science co-financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund (First TEAM/2017–3/26). The authors acknowledge Beamline 9 of the DELTA electron storage ring in Dortmund for GIWAXS measurements. The authors thank Mateusz Brzezinski for the discussion about GIWAXS analysis, and Christ Weijtens for UPS measurements. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019, The Author(s).",

year = "2019",

month = dec,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-019-10519-z",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "10",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Impact of polymorphism on the optoelectronic properties of a low-bandgap semiconducting polymer

AU - Li, Mengmeng

AU - Balawi, Ahmed Hesham

AU - Leenaers, Pieter J.

AU - Ning, Lu

AU - Heintges, Gaël H.L.

AU - Marszalek, Tomasz

AU - Pisula, Wojciech

AU - Wienk, Martijn M.

AU - Meskers, Stefan C.J.

AU - Yi, Yuanping

AU - Laquai, Frédéric

AU - Janssen, René A.J.

N1 - Funding Information: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 747422, from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (016. Veni.192.106), from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB12020200), and from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The research also received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) (Grant Agreement no. 607585, project OSNIRO), the European Research Council (ERC Grant Agreement No. 33903), and the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science (Gravity program 024.001.035). T.M. acknowledges the Foundation for Polish Science co-financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund (First TEAM/2017–3/26). The authors acknowledge Beamline 9 of the DELTA electron storage ring in Dortmund for GIWAXS measurements. The authors thank Mateusz Brzezinski for the discussion about GIWAXS analysis, and Christ Weijtens for UPS measurements. Publisher Copyright: © 2019, The Author(s).

PY - 2019/12/1

Y1 - 2019/12/1

N2 - Polymorphism of organic semiconducting materials exerts critical effects on their physical properties such as optical absorption, emission and electrical conductivity, and provides an excellent platform for investigating structure–property relations. It is, however, challenging to efficiently tune the polymorphism of conjugated polymers in aggregated, semi-crystalline phases due to their conformational freedom and anisotropic nature. Here, two distinctly different semi-crystalline polymorphs (β1 and β2) of a low-bandgap diketopyrrolopyrrole polymer are formed through controlling the solvent quality, as evidenced by spectroscopic, structural, thermal and charge transport studies. Compared to β1, the β2 polymorph exhibits a lower optical band gap, an enhanced photoluminescence, a reduced π-stacking distance, a higher hole mobility in field-effect transistors and improved photocurrent generation in polymer solar cells. The β1 and β2 polymorphs provide insights into the control of polymer self-organization for plastic electronics and hold potential for developing programmable ink formulations for next-generation electronic devices.

AB - Polymorphism of organic semiconducting materials exerts critical effects on their physical properties such as optical absorption, emission and electrical conductivity, and provides an excellent platform for investigating structure–property relations. It is, however, challenging to efficiently tune the polymorphism of conjugated polymers in aggregated, semi-crystalline phases due to their conformational freedom and anisotropic nature. Here, two distinctly different semi-crystalline polymorphs (β1 and β2) of a low-bandgap diketopyrrolopyrrole polymer are formed through controlling the solvent quality, as evidenced by spectroscopic, structural, thermal and charge transport studies. Compared to β1, the β2 polymorph exhibits a lower optical band gap, an enhanced photoluminescence, a reduced π-stacking distance, a higher hole mobility in field-effect transistors and improved photocurrent generation in polymer solar cells. The β1 and β2 polymorphs provide insights into the control of polymer self-organization for plastic electronics and hold potential for developing programmable ink formulations for next-generation electronic devices.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85068164168&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-019-10519-z

DO - 10.1038/s41467-019-10519-z

M3 - Article

C2 - 31253772

AN - SCOPUS:85068164168

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 10

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

IS - 1

M1 - 2867

ER -

Impact of polymorphism on the optoelectronic properties of a low-bandgap semiconducting polymer

Abstract

Bibliographical note

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this