Abstract
N-type conjugated polymers as the semiconducting component of organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are still undeveloped with respect to the p-type counterparts. Herein, we first report two rigid n-type conjugated polymers bearing oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG) side chains, PgNaN and PgNgN, which demonstrated an essentially torsion-free π-conjugated backbone. The planarity and electron-deficient rigid structures enable the resulting polymers to achieve high electron mobility in an OECT device of up to 10 -3 cm 2 V -1 s -1 range, with a deep-lying lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy level lower than -4.0 eV. Prominently, the polymers exhibited a high device performance with a maximum dimensionally normalized transconductance of 0.212 S cm -1 and the product of charge carrier mobility µ and volumetric capacitance C* of 0.662 ± 0.113 F cm -1 V -1 s -1 , which are among the highest in n-type conjugated polymers reported to date. Moreover, the polymers are synthesized via a metal-free aldol condensation polymerization, which is beneficial to their application in bioelectronics. Our work proves a new way for designing glycolated n-type conjugated polymers with low-lying LUMO and conformation-locked backbones for high performance OECTs.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Journal | Angewandte Chemie |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 24 2020 |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-12-30Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): OSR2018-CARF/CCF-3079, OSR-2015-CRG4-2572, OSR2019-CRG8-4086
Acknowledgements: The research reported in this publication was supported by funding from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) under awards no. OSR2018-CARF/CCF-3079, no. OSR-2015-CRG4-2572 and OSR2019-CRG8-4086. We acknowledge EC FP7 Project SC2 (610115), EC H2020 (643791), and EPSRC Projects EP/G037515/1, EP/M005143/1, and EP/L016702/1. B.D.P., R.W.,and J.R. gratefully acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation grant no. NSF DMR-1751308. Special thanks to Joseph Strzalka and Qingteng Zhang for beam line assistance. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02- 06CH11357. This work utilized Keck-II facility of Northwestern University’s NUANCE Center and Northwestern University Micro/Nano Fabrication Facility (NUFAB), which are both partially supported by Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205), the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (NSF DMR-1720139), the State of Illinois, and Northwestern University. Additionally, the Keck-II facility is partially supported by the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN); the Keck Foundation; and the State of Illinois, through the IIN.