1 research outputs found
Soft Poly(butyl acrylate) Side Chains toward Intrinsically Stretchable Polymeric Semiconductors for Field-Effect Transistor Applications
PolyÂ(butyl acrylate)
(PBA) side chain equipped isoindigo-bithiophene
(II2T) conjugated polymers have been designed and synthesized for
stretchable electronic applications. The PBA segment possesses low
glass transition temperature and high softness, offering a great opportunity
to improve the mechanical property of semiconducting polymer thin
films that typically contain lots of rigid conjugated rings. Polymers
with 0, 5, 10, 20 and 100% of PBA side chains, named <b>PII2T</b>, <b>PII2T-PBA5</b>, <b>PII2T-PBA10</b>, <b>PII2T-PBA20</b>, and <b>PII2T-PBA100</b>, were explored, and their polymer
properties, surface morphology, electrical characteristics, and strain-dependent
performance were investigated systematically. The series polymers
showed a charge carrier mobility of 0.06–0.8 cm<sup>2</sup> V<sup>–1</sup> s<sup>–1</sup> with an on/off current
ratio over 10<sup>5</sup> dependent on different amounts of PBA chains
as probed using a top-contact transistor device. Moreover, we can
still achieve a mobility higher than 0.2 cm<sup>2</sup> V<sup>–1</sup> s<sup>–1</sup> even if 10% of PBA side chains were added
(i.e., <b>PII2T-PBA10</b>). Such <b>PII2T-PBA</b> polymers,
more attractive, exhibited superior thin film ductility with a low
tensile modulus down to 0.12 GPa (<b>PII2T-PBA20</b>) due to
the soft PBA side chain. The more PBA segment was incroporated, the
lower modulus was reached. The mobility performance, at the same time,
remained approximately 0.08 cm<sup>2</sup> V<sup>–1</sup> s<sup>–1</sup> based on <b>PII2T-PBA10</b> films even under
a 60% strain and could be simultaneously operated over 400 stretching/releasing
cycles without significant electrical degradations. The above results
suggest that the rational design of soft PBA side chains provides
a great potential for next-generation soft and wearable electronic
applications