Self-Replication of Deeply Buried Doped Silicon Structures, which Remotely Control the Etching Process: A New Method for Forming a Silicon Pattern from the Bottom Up

A typical microstructuring process utilizes photolithographic masks to create arbitrary patterns on silicon substrates in a top-down approach. Herein, a new, bottom-up microstructuring method is reported, which enables the patterning of n-doped silicon substrates to be performed without the need for application of etch-masks or stencils during the etching process. Instead, the structuring process developed herein involves a simple alkaline etching performed under illumination and is remotely controlled by the p-doped micro-sized implants, buried beneath a homogeneous n-doped layer at depths of 0.25 to 1 µm. The microstructuring is realized because the buried implants act upon illumination as micro-sized photovoltaic cells, which generate a flux of electrons and increase the negative surface charge in areas above the implants. The locally increased surface charge causes a local protection of the native silicon oxide layer from alkaline etching, which ultimately leads to the microstructuring of the substrate. In this way, substrates having at their top a thick layer of homogeneously n-doped silicon can be structured, reducing the need for costly, time-consuming photolithography steps. © 2021 The Authors. Advanced Functional Materials published by Wiley-VCH Gmb

Thiophene Based Semiconductors: Synthesis and Characterizations

Diverse conformational transitions and aggregations of regioregular head-to-tail polyhexylthiophene in different environments have been studied by means of AFM and UV-vis spectroscopy. A helical conformation of the main chain with 12 thiophenes rings per each helical turn has been proposed. Length of the particles varies from several nanometers to several hundreds nanometers and can be adjusted by the solvents composition or concentration of PATs. Such well-defined organic semiconductor 1D particles can be used as building blocks for future nanoscale and molecular level electronic devices. Oligothiophenes represent one of the most promising class of semiconductive materials for FET fabrication because of their good mobility and environmental stability. However, most of unsubstituted oligothiophenes are insoluble that suppresses their potential industrial utility. On the first stage of the work, conformation, crystalline structure, molecular packing and charge carrier mobility of the highly soluble regiochemically pure [Beta]-substituted sexithiophene were systematically studied. It was found that [Beta, Beta´]-DH6T possesses moderate PR-TRMC charge carrier mobility, but rather low field-effect mobility. The investigation showed that such a poor macroscopic electrical properties of [Beta, Beta´]-DH6T originate neither from the twist of the conjugated system nor from the crystalline disorder, but rather from low-dense crystalline packing and "wrong" molecular orientation. To overcome these obstacles two thiophene-based azomethines were designed to optimize a solubility, self-assembly, and a charge carrier mobility. The idea was to utilize the ability of the amide group to form strong hydrogen bonds in non-polar solvents and in solid state, but to be easily broken in presence of polar solvents. Thus, at the stage of a dissolution and a deposition, when the solubility is important, the hydrogen bonding can be "switched off" simply by addition of polar solvents and then, after the removal of polar additives, the self-assembly can be "switched on". It was found that incorporation of azomethine and amide moieties in the [Alpha, Omega]-position, and hexyl chains in [Beta]-position of quaterthiophene, indeed considerably improves the self-assembly properties without suppression of the solubility. Self-assembly of azomethine oligomers with (QT-amide) and without amide moieties (QT-aniline) were monitored by UV-vis, XRD, and AFM. It was found that QT-amide, processed from solution, forms highly ordered layered (terrace) structures. This aggregation mode is similar to the self-assembly of unsubstituted conjugated oligomers (such as pentacene) occurred upon their evaporation in vacuum. The sum of charge carrier mobilities (PR-TRMC data) for QT-aniline was shown to be below the detectable limit, but the mobility of QT-amide was determined to be 1.10-2 cm2 V-1 s-1. The later is comparable with the mobilities of the best organic semiconductors. All these significant differences in properties of related compounds can be attributed to the hydrogen bonding between QT-amide molecules responsible for the observed self-assembly

A Printable Paste Based on a Stable n-Type Poly[Ni-tto] Semiconducting Polymer

Polynickeltetrathiooxalate (poly[Ni-tto]) is an n-type semiconducting polymer having outstanding thermoelectric characteristics and exhibiting high stability under ambient conditions. However, its insolubility limits its use in organic electronics. This work is devoted to the production of a printable paste based on a poly[Ni-tto]/PVDF composite by thoroughly grinding the powder in a ball mill. The resulting paste has high homogeneity and is characterized by rheological properties that are well suited to the printing process. High-precision dispenser printing allows one to apply both narrow lines and films of poly[Ni-tto]-composite with a high degree of smoothness. The resulting films have slightly better thermoelectric properties compared to the original polymer powder. A flexible, fully organic double-leg thermoelectric generator with six thermocouples was printed by dispense printing using the poly[Ni-tto]-composite paste as n-type material and a commercial PEDOT-PSS paste as p-type material. A temperature gradient of 100 K produces a power output of about 20 nW. © 2019 by the authors

Interfacial Doping of Organic Semiconductors Accessibled by Anionic p-Dopant CN6-CP•–K+

T. Beryozkina gratefully acknowledges financial support by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Рroject № 18-03-00715)

Charge‐Compensated N‐Doped π ‐Conjugated Polymers: Toward both Thermodynamic Stability of N‐Doped States in Water and High Electron Conductivity

The understanding and applications of electron-conducting π-conjugated polymers with naphtalene diimide (NDI) blocks show remarkable progress in recent years. Such polymers demonstrate a facilitated n-doping due to the strong electron deficiency of the main polymer chain and the presence of the positively charged side groups stabilizing a negative charge of the n-doped backbone. Here, the n-type conducting NDI polymer with enhanced stability of its n-doped states for prospective “in-water” applications is developed. A combined experimental–theoretical approach is used to identify critical features and parameters that control the doping and electron transport process. The facilitated polymer reduction ability and the thermodynamic stability in water are confirmed by electrochemical measurements and doping studies. This material also demonstrates a high conductivity of 10−2 S cm−1 under ambient conditions and 10−1 S cm−1 in vacuum. The modeling explains the stabilizing effects for various dopants. The simulations show a significant doping-induced “collapse” of the positively charged side chains on the core bearing a partial negative charge. This explains a decrease in the lamellar spacing observed in experiments. This study fundamentally enables a novel pathway for achieving both thermodynamic stability of the n-doped states in water and the high electron conductivity of polymers

Sequentially Processed P3HT/CN6-CP•−NBu4+ Films: Interfacial or Bulk Doping?

Derivatives of the hexacyano-[3]-radialene anion radical (CN6-CP•−) emerge as a promising new family of p-dopants having a doping strength comparable to that of archetypical dopant 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyano-quinodimethane (F4TCNQ). Here, mixed solution (MxS) and sequential processing (SqP) doping methods are compared by using a model semiconductor poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and the dopant CN6-CP•−NBu4 + (NBu4 + = tetrabutylammonium). MxS films show a moderate yet thickness-independent conductivity of ≈0.1 S cm−1. For the SqP case, the highest conductivity value of ≈6 S cm−1 is achieved for the thinnest (1.5–3 nm) films whereas conductivity drops two orders of magnitudes for 100 times thicker films. These results are explained in terms of an interfacial doping mechanism realized in the SqP films, where only layers close to the P3HT/dopant interface are doped efficiently, whereas internal P3HT layers remain essentially undoped. This structure is in agreement with transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and Kelvin probe force microscopy results. The temperature-dependent conductivity measurements reveal a lower activation energy for charge carriers in SqP samples than in MxS films (79 meV vs 110 meV), which could be a reason for their superior conductivity. © 2020 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinhei

Dithienosilole-based all-conjugated block copolymers synthesized by a combination of quasiliving Kumada and Negishi catalyst-transfer polycondensations

Herein, we present a quasi-living Negishi-type catalyst-transfer polycondensation of a zinc–organic DTSbased monomer which provides an access to narrowly distributed poly(4,4-bis(2-ethylhexyl)dithieno[3,2-b:20,30-d]silole (PDTS) with controlled molecular weight. The synthesis of well-defined all-conjugated diblock copolymers containing a PDTS block was accomplished by a combination of Kumada and Negishi catalyst-transfer polycondensations (KCTP and NCTP, respectively). Particularly, it was shown that living P3HT chains obtained by KCTP of magnesium–organic thiophene-based monomer efficiently initiate NCTP of zinc–organic DTS-based monomer. The purity of the DTS-based monomer was found to be a crucial factor for achieving a clean chain-growth polymerization process. A combination of physico-chemical methods was used to prove the success of the block copolymerization

Solution-Processable Hole-Transporting Polymers: Synthesis, Doping Study and Crosslinking Induced by UV-Irradiation or Huisgen-Click Cycloaddition

A pair of hole-conducting polymers comprising 3,6-linked carbazole and meta-linked anisole derivatives having solubilizing moieties to enable their solution processability, and complementarily reactive side-groups (azide and alkyne) for cross-linking, are synthesized and characterized. The polymers can be cross-linked either by thermal annealing at relatively low temperatures in the 85–110 °C range, or by UV irradiation. A general applicability of the latter for a photolithographic patterning of the hole conducting polymer is proven. The polymers have an ionization potential (IP) of 5.8 eV, close to the IP of a small molecule hole-conductor tris(4-carbazoyl-9-ylphenyl)amine (TCTA). In combination with a strong dopant hexacyano-trimethylene-cyclopropane (CN6CP), but not with commercial 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F4TCNQ), the polymers can be efficiently p-doped to increase their conductivity by 5–6 orders of magnitude, as measured in devices with a lateral setup. Taken together, these characteristics suggest that the synthesized polymers are promising candidates for their use in solution-processable organic light-emitting diodes as hole-injection layer and hole-transporting layer materials, which will be verified in the upcoming work. © 2022 The Authors. Advanced Materials Interfaces published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.Technische Universität Dresden, TUD; China Scholarship Council, CSC: 201707040070; European Social Fund, ESF: 100382146; Russian Science Foundation, RSF: 18-13-00161 prolongationE.C.-C. thanks financial support provided by the State budget approved by the delegates of the Saxon State Parliament and by the European Social Fund (ESF) within the project “ReLearning” (SAB appl. No. 100382146) and the “Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden” (CfAED) at the Technische Universität Dresden. T.B. is thankful to Russian Science Foundation (Grant # 18-13-00161 prolongation). K.Z. is grateful to China Scholarship Council (CSC, No. 201707040070) for the financial support. Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.E.C.-C. thanks financial support provided by the State budget approved by the delegates of the Saxon State Parliament and by the European Social Fund (ESF) within the project “ReLearning” (SAB appl. No. 100382146) and the “Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden” (CfAED) at the Technische Universität Dresden. T.B. is thankful to Russian Science Foundation (Grant # 18-13-00161 prolongation). K.Z. is grateful to China Scholarship Council (CSC, No. 201707040070) for the financial support

Remarkable Mechanochromism in Blends of a π-Conjugated Polymer P3TEOT: The Role of Conformational Transitions and Aggregation

A novel mechanism for well-pronounced mechanochromism in blends of a π-conjugated polymer based on reversible conformational transitions of a chromophore rather than caused by its aggregation state, is exemplified. Particularly, a strong stretching-induced bathochromic shift of the light absorption, or hypsochromic shift of the emission, is found in blends of the water-soluble poly(3-tri(ethylene glycol)) (P3TEOT) embedded into the matrix of thermoplastic polyvinyl alcohol. This counterintuitive phenomenon is explained in terms of the concentration dependency of the P3TEOT's aggregation state, which in turn results in different molecular conformations and optical properties. A molecular flexibility, provided by low glass transition temperature of P3TEOT, and the fact that P3TEOT adopts an intermediate, moderately planar conformation in the solid state, are responsible for the unusual complex mechanochromic behavior. © 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, WeinheimRussian Foundation for Basic Research, RFBR: 18-03-00715Volkswagen FoundationDeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG: KI-1094/9-1J.Z. and M.S. contributed equally to the work. The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (Grant KI-1094/9-1) and cfaed (ExInI). T.B. gratefully acknowledges financial support by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project 18-03-00715). This project is financially supported by the Volkswagen Foundation through a Freigeist Fellowship to T.A.F.K. The authors acknowledge the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within the Cluster of Excellence ?Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden? (cfaed) for financial support

Charge Carrier Mobility Improvement in Diketopyrrolopyrrole Block-Copolymers by Shear Coating

Shear coating is a promising deposition method for upscaling device fabrication and enabling high throughput, and is furthermore suitable for translating to roll-to-roll processing. Although common polymer semiconductors (PSCs) are solution processible, they are still prone to mechanical failure upon stretching, limiting applications in e.g., electronic skin and health monitoring. Progress made towards mechanically compliant PSCs, e.g., the incorporation of soft segments into the polymer backbone, could not only allow such applications, but also benefit advanced fabrication methods, like roll-to-roll printing on flexible substrates, to produce the targeted devices. Tri-block copolymers (TBCs), consisting of an inner rigid semiconducting poly-diketo-pyrrolopyrrole-thienothiophene (PDPP-TT) block flanked by two soft elastomeric poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) chains, maintain good charge transport properties, while being mechanically soft and flexible. Potentially aiming at the fabrication of TBC-based wearable electronics by means of cost-efficient and scalable deposition methods (e.g., blade-coating), a tolerance of the electrical performance of the TBCs to the shear speed was investigated. Herein, we demonstrate that such TBCs can be deposited at high shear speeds (film formation up to a speed of 10 mm s−1). While such high speeds result in increased film thickness, no degradation of the electrical performance was observed, as was frequently reported for polymer−based OFETs. Instead, high shear speeds even led to a small improvement in the electrical performance: mobility increased from 0.06 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 0.5 mm s−1 to 0.16 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 7 mm s−1 for the TBC with 24 wt% PDMS, and for the TBC containing 37 wt% PDMS from 0.05 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 0.5 mm s−1 to 0.13 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 7 mm s−1. Interestingly, the improvement of mobility is not accompanied by any significant changes in morphology