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Large-Dimensional Organic Semiconductor Crystals with Poly(butyl acrylate) Polymer for Solution-Processed Organic Thin Film Transistors

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Abstract

Despite solution processed organic semiconductors have attracted much research attention, the randomized crystallization and large prevalence of grain boundary remain as a challenge to realize high performance organic electronic applications. In this work, we report the incorporation of poly(butyl acrylate) polymer additive with organic semiconductors with the mediation of a solvent vapor annealing method in order to modify the nucleation and crystal growth process. As 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene (TIPS pentacene) was experimented as a benchmark semiconductor, we demonstrated that the TIPS pentacene/poly(butyl acrylate) mixture exhibits rigidly aligned crystals, large grain width and improved areal coverage. In particular, thin film morphological characterization indicated a substantial reduction in misorientation angle by approximately two orders of magnitude as well as a 5-fold enlargement of grain width. A grain boundary model is proposed as a theoretic basis to understand the connection between grain width and hole mobility. Bottom-gate, top-contact thin film transistors based on TIPS pentacene/poly(butyl acrylate) blends demonstrated enhanced hole mobility of up to 0.11 cm2/Vs.

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Acknowledgements

Q. Li and S. Bi would like to thank Science and Technology Project of Liaoning Province (20180540006). Z. He would like to acknowledge support provided from the University of Alabama.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Precision and Non-traditional Machining Technology of the Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, Liaoning, China

    Yeqing Sun & Sheng Bi

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Columbia University, New York City, NY, 10027, USA

    Ziyang Zhang

  3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Penn State Behrend, Erie, PA, 16563, USA

    Kyeiwaa Asare-Yeboah

  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Alabama, 35487, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

    Zhengran He

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  1. Yeqing Sun
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Sun, Y., Zhang, Z., Asare-Yeboah, K. et al. Large-Dimensional Organic Semiconductor Crystals with Poly(butyl acrylate) Polymer for Solution-Processed Organic Thin Film Transistors. Electron. Mater. Lett. 17, 33–42 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-020-00253-w

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