Isoindigo-Based Semiconducting Polymers Using Carbosilane Side Chains for High Performance Stretchable Field-Effect Transistors

Abstract

Isoindigo-based conjugated polymers, PII2T-C6 and PII2T-C8, with carbosilane side chains have been designed and synthesized for stretchable electronic applications. The carbosilane side chains offerred a simple synthetic pathway to evaluate long and branched side chains in high yields and were prepared with a six or eight linear spacer plus two hexyl or octyl chains after branching. The studied polymers showed a high charge carrier mobility of 8.06 cm² V^–1 s^–1 with an on/off current ratio of 10⁶ as probed using a top-contact transistor device with organized solid state molecular packing structures, as investigated through grazing-incidance X-ray diffreaction (GIXD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique systematically. The studied polymers, more attractive, exhibited superior thin film ductility with a low tensile modulus in a range of 0.27–0.43 GPa owing to the branched carbosilane side chain, and their mobility was remained higher than 1 cm² V^–1 s^–1 even under a 60% strain along parallel or perpendicular direction to the tensile strain. Such polymer films, in addition, can be simultaneously operated over 400 stretching/releasing cycles and maintained stable electrical properties, suggesting the newly designed materials possessed great potential for next-generation skin-inspired wearable electronic application with high charge carrier mobility, low tensile modulus, and stable device characteristics during stretching