Macroscopic Domains within an Oriented TQ1 Film Visualized Using 2D Polarization Imaging

Daniela Täuber; Wanzhu Cai; Olle Inganäs; Ivan G Scheblykin

doi:10.1021/acsomega.6b00264

Macroscopic Domains within an Oriented TQ1 Film Visualized Using 2D Polarization Imaging

ACS Omega. 2017 Jan 4;2(1):32-40. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.6b00264. eCollection 2017 Jan 31.

Authors

Daniela Täuber¹, Wanzhu Cai², Olle Inganäs², Ivan G Scheblykin¹

Affiliations

¹ Chemical Physics, Lund University, P.O. Box 124, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden.
² Biomolecular and Organic Electronics, IFM, Linköping University, SE-58183 Linköping, Sweden.

Abstract

Large-area self-assembly of functional conjugated polymers holds a great potential for practical applications of organic electronic devices. We obtained well-aligned films of poly[2,3-bis(3-octyloxyphenyl)quinoxaline-5,8-diyl-alt-thiophene-2,5-diyl] (TQ1) using the floating film transfer method. Thereby, a droplet of the TQ1 solution was injected on top of the surface of an immiscible liquid substrate, at the meniscus formed at the edge of a Petri dish, from where the polymer solution and the film spread in one direction. Characterization of the TQ1 film using the recently developed two-dimensional polarization imaging (2D POLIM) revealed large, millimeter-sized domains of oriented polymer chains. The irregular shape of the contact line at the droplet source induced the appearance of disordered stripes perpendicular to the spreading direction. A correlation of polarization parameters measured using 2D POLIM revealed the microstructure of such stripes, providing valuable information for further improvement and possible upscaling of this promising method.