Efficient Electron Mobility in an All-Acceptor Napthalenediimide-Bithiazole Polymer Semiconductor with Large Backbone Torsion

Jack T Ly; Edmund K Burnett; Simil Thomas; Areej Aljarb; Yao Liu; Soohyung Park; Stephen Rosa; Yeonjin Yi; Hyunbok Lee; Todd Emrick; Thomas P Russell; Jean-Luc Brédas; Alejandro L Briseno

doi:10.1021/acsami.8b11234

Efficient Electron Mobility in an All-Acceptor Napthalenediimide-Bithiazole Polymer Semiconductor with Large Backbone Torsion

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2018 Nov 21;10(46):40070-40077. doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b11234. Epub 2018 Nov 12.

Authors

Jack T Ly¹, Edmund K Burnett¹, Simil Thomas², Areej Aljarb³, Yao Liu¹, Soohyung Park⁴, Stephen Rosa¹, Yeonjin Yi⁴, Hyunbok Lee⁵, Todd Emrick¹, Thomas P Russell¹, Jean-Luc Brédas^{2

3}, Alejandro L Briseno^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Polymer Science and Engineering , University of Massachusetts , 120 Governors Drive , Amherst , Massachusetts 01003 , United States.
² School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE) , Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta , Georgia 30332-0400 , United States.
³ Laboratory for Computational and Theoretical Chemistry of Advanced Materials, Division of Physical Science and Engineering , King Abdullah University of Science and Technology , Thuwal 23955-6900 , Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Institute of Physics and Applied Physics , Yonsei University , 50 Yonsei-ro , Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03722 , Republic of Korea.
⁵ Department of Physics , Kangwon National University , 1 Gangwondaehak-gil , Chuncheon-si , Gangwon-do 24341 , Republic of Korea.
⁶ Department of Chemistry , The Pennsylvania State University , University Park , Pennsylvania 16803 , United States.

PMID: 30379059
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b11234

Abstract

An all-acceptor napthalenediimide-bithiazole-based co-polymer, P(NDI2OD-BiTz), was synthesized and characterized for application in thin-film transistors. Density functional theory calculations point to an optimal perpendicular dihedral angle of 90° between acceptor units along isolated polymer chains; yet optimized transistors yield electron mobility of 0.11 cm²/(V s) with the use of a zwitterionic naphthalene diimide interlayer. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction measurements of annealed films reveal that P(NDI2OD-BiTz) adopts a highly ordered edge-on orientation, exactly opposite to similar bithiophene analogs. This report highlights an NDI and thiazole all-acceptor polymer and demonstrates high electron mobility despite its nonplanar backbone conformation.

Keywords: all-acceptor; annealing; n-type; naphthalene diimide; semiconductor; thiazole.