Remarkable Enhancement of the Hole Mobility in Several Organic Small-Molecules, Polymers, and Small-Molecule:Polymer Blend Transistors by Simple Admixing of the Lewis Acid p-Dopant B(C6F5)3

Julianna Panidi; Alexandra Paterson; Dongyoon Khim; Zhuping Fei; Yang Han; Leonidas Tsetseris; George Vourlias; Panos A. Patsalas; Martin Heeney; Thomas D. Anthopoulos

doi:10.1002/advs.201700290

Remarkable Enhancement of the Hole Mobility in Several Organic Small-Molecules, Polymers, and Small-Molecule:Polymer Blend Transistors by Simple Admixing of the Lewis Acid p-Dopant B(C₆F₅)₃

Julianna Panidi, Alexandra Paterson, Dongyoon Khim, Zhuping Fei, Yang Han, Leonidas Tsetseris, George Vourlias, Panos A. Patsalas, Martin Heeney, Thomas D. Anthopoulos^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Physical Sciences and Engineering

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

110 Scopus citations

Abstract

Improving the charge carrier mobility of solution-processable organic semiconductors is critical for the development of advanced organic thin-film transistors and their application in the emerging sector of printed electronics. Here, a simple method is reported for enhancing the hole mobility in a wide range of organic semiconductors, including small-molecules, polymers, and small-molecule:polymer blends, with the latter systems exhibiting the highest mobility. The method is simple and relies on admixing of the molecular Lewis acid B(C₆F₅)₃ in the semiconductor formulation prior to solution deposition. Two prototypical semiconductors where B(C₆F₅)₃ is shown to have a remarkable impact are the blends of 2,8-difluoro-5,11-bis(triethylsilylethynyl)anthradithiophene:poly(triarylamine) (diF-TESADT:PTAA) and 2,7-dioctyl[1]-benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene:poly(indacenodithiophene-co-benzothiadiazole) (C8-BTBT:C16-IDTBT), for which hole mobilities of 8 and 11 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, respectively, are obtained. Doping of the 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene:PTAA blend with B(C₆F₅)₃ is also shown to increase the maximum hole mobility to 3.7 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹. Analysis of the single and multicomponent materials reveals that B(C₆F₅)₃ plays a dual role, first acting as an efficient p-dopant, and secondly as a microstructure modifier. Semiconductors that undergo simultaneous p-doping and dopant-induced long-range crystallization are found to consistently outperform transistors based on the pristine materials. Our work underscores Lewis acid doping as a generic strategy towards high performance printed organic microelectronics.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	1700290
Journal	Advanced Science
Volume	5
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201700290
State	Published - Jan 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
J.P., A.F.P., M.H., and T.D.A. acknowledge financial support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (Grant No. EP/G037515/1) and from the European Research Council (ERC) AMPRO project no. 280221. L.T. acknowledges support for the computational time granted from the Greek Research & Technology Network (GRNET) in the National HPC facility – ARIS – under project pr002036-Q2D-2.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Keywords

Lewis acid dopant
doping
organic semiconductors
organic transistors
printed flexible electronics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Medicine (miscellaneous)
Chemical Engineering(all)
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous)
Materials Science(all)
Engineering(all)
Physics and Astronomy(all)

Access to Document

10.1002/advs.201700290

Cite this

Panidi, J., Paterson, A., Khim, D., Fei, Z., Han, Y., Tsetseris, L., Vourlias, G., Patsalas, P. A., Heeney, M., & Anthopoulos, T. D. (2018). Remarkable Enhancement of the Hole Mobility in Several Organic Small-Molecules, Polymers, and Small-Molecule:Polymer Blend Transistors by Simple Admixing of the Lewis Acid p-Dopant B(C₆F₅)₃ Advanced Science, 5(1), [1700290]. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201700290

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title = "Remarkable Enhancement of the Hole Mobility in Several Organic Small-Molecules, Polymers, and Small-Molecule:Polymer Blend Transistors by Simple Admixing of the Lewis Acid p-Dopant B(C6F5)3 ",

abstract = "Improving the charge carrier mobility of solution-processable organic semiconductors is critical for the development of advanced organic thin-film transistors and their application in the emerging sector of printed electronics. Here, a simple method is reported for enhancing the hole mobility in a wide range of organic semiconductors, including small-molecules, polymers, and small-molecule:polymer blends, with the latter systems exhibiting the highest mobility. The method is simple and relies on admixing of the molecular Lewis acid B(C6F5)3 in the semiconductor formulation prior to solution deposition. Two prototypical semiconductors where B(C6F5)3 is shown to have a remarkable impact are the blends of 2,8-difluoro-5,11-bis(triethylsilylethynyl)anthradithiophene:poly(triarylamine) (diF-TESADT:PTAA) and 2,7-dioctyl[1]-benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene:poly(indacenodithiophene-co-benzothiadiazole) (C8-BTBT:C16-IDTBT), for which hole mobilities of 8 and 11 cm2 V−1 s−1, respectively, are obtained. Doping of the 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene:PTAA blend with B(C6F5)3 is also shown to increase the maximum hole mobility to 3.7 cm2 V−1 s−1. Analysis of the single and multicomponent materials reveals that B(C6F5)3 plays a dual role, first acting as an efficient p-dopant, and secondly as a microstructure modifier. Semiconductors that undergo simultaneous p-doping and dopant-induced long-range crystallization are found to consistently outperform transistors based on the pristine materials. Our work underscores Lewis acid doping as a generic strategy towards high performance printed organic microelectronics.",

keywords = "Lewis acid dopant, doping, organic semiconductors, organic transistors, printed flexible electronics",

author = "Julianna Panidi and Alexandra Paterson and Dongyoon Khim and Zhuping Fei and Yang Han and Leonidas Tsetseris and George Vourlias and Patsalas, {Panos A.} and Martin Heeney and Anthopoulos, {Thomas D.}",

note = "Funding Information: J.P., A.F.P., M.H., and T.D.A. acknowledge financial support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (Grant No. EP/G037515/1) and from the European Research Council (ERC) AMPRO project no. 280221. L.T. acknowledges support for the computational time granted from the Greek Research & Technology Network (GRNET) in the National HPC facility – ARIS – under project pr002036-Q2D-2. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim",

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language = "English (US)",

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Panidi, J, Paterson, A, Khim, D, Fei, Z, Han, Y, Tsetseris, L, Vourlias, G, Patsalas, PA, Heeney, M & Anthopoulos, TD 2018, 'Remarkable Enhancement of the Hole Mobility in Several Organic Small-Molecules, Polymers, and Small-Molecule:Polymer Blend Transistors by Simple Admixing of the Lewis Acid p-Dopant B(C₆F₅)₃ ', Advanced Science, vol. 5, no. 1, 1700290. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201700290

Remarkable Enhancement of the Hole Mobility in Several Organic Small-Molecules, Polymers, and Small-Molecule:Polymer Blend Transistors by Simple Admixing of the Lewis Acid p-Dopant B(C₆F₅)₃ . / Panidi, Julianna; Paterson, Alexandra; Khim, Dongyoon et al.

In: Advanced Science, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1700290, 01.2018.

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

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AU - Paterson, Alexandra

AU - Khim, Dongyoon

AU - Fei, Zhuping

AU - Han, Yang

AU - Tsetseris, Leonidas

AU - Vourlias, George

AU - Patsalas, Panos A.

AU - Heeney, Martin

AU - Anthopoulos, Thomas D.

N1 - Funding Information: J.P., A.F.P., M.H., and T.D.A. acknowledge financial support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (Grant No. EP/G037515/1) and from the European Research Council (ERC) AMPRO project no. 280221. L.T. acknowledges support for the computational time granted from the Greek Research & Technology Network (GRNET) in the National HPC facility – ARIS – under project pr002036-Q2D-2. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

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AB - Improving the charge carrier mobility of solution-processable organic semiconductors is critical for the development of advanced organic thin-film transistors and their application in the emerging sector of printed electronics. Here, a simple method is reported for enhancing the hole mobility in a wide range of organic semiconductors, including small-molecules, polymers, and small-molecule:polymer blends, with the latter systems exhibiting the highest mobility. The method is simple and relies on admixing of the molecular Lewis acid B(C6F5)3 in the semiconductor formulation prior to solution deposition. Two prototypical semiconductors where B(C6F5)3 is shown to have a remarkable impact are the blends of 2,8-difluoro-5,11-bis(triethylsilylethynyl)anthradithiophene:poly(triarylamine) (diF-TESADT:PTAA) and 2,7-dioctyl[1]-benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene:poly(indacenodithiophene-co-benzothiadiazole) (C8-BTBT:C16-IDTBT), for which hole mobilities of 8 and 11 cm2 V−1 s−1, respectively, are obtained. Doping of the 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene:PTAA blend with B(C6F5)3 is also shown to increase the maximum hole mobility to 3.7 cm2 V−1 s−1. Analysis of the single and multicomponent materials reveals that B(C6F5)3 plays a dual role, first acting as an efficient p-dopant, and secondly as a microstructure modifier. Semiconductors that undergo simultaneous p-doping and dopant-induced long-range crystallization are found to consistently outperform transistors based on the pristine materials. Our work underscores Lewis acid doping as a generic strategy towards high performance printed organic microelectronics.

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