Fluorinated Alcohol-Processed N-Type Organic Electrochemical Transistor with High Performance and Enhanced Stability

Genming Zhu; Junxin Chen; Jiayao Duan; Hailiang Liao; Xiuyuan Zhu; Zhengke Li; Iain McCulloch; Wan Yue

doi:10.1021/acsami.2c13310

Fluorinated Alcohol-Processed N-Type Organic Electrochemical Transistor with High Performance and Enhanced Stability

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022 Sep 28;14(38):43586-43596. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c13310. Epub 2022 Sep 16.

Authors

Genming Zhu¹, Junxin Chen¹, Jiayao Duan¹, Hailiang Liao¹, Xiuyuan Zhu¹, Zhengke Li¹, Iain McCulloch², Wan Yue¹

Affiliations

¹ Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronic Materials and Wearable Devices, State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, School of Materials and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
² Department of Chemistry, Chemistry Research Laboratory, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3TA, UK.

PMID: 36112127
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c13310

Abstract

Tuning the film morphology and aggregated structure is a vital means to improve the performance of the mixed ionic-electronic conductors in organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). Herein, three fluorinated alcohols (FAs), including 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (TFE), 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP), and perfluoro-tert-butanol (PFTB), were employed as the alternative solvents for engineering the n-type small-molecule active layer gNR. Remarkedly, an impressive μC* of 5.12 F V^-1 cm^-1 s^-1 and a normalized transconductance of 1.216 S cm^-1 are achieved from the HFIP-fabricated gNR OECTs, which is three times higher than that of chloroform. The operational stability has been significantly enhanced by the FA-fabricated devices. Such enhancements can be ascribed to the aggregation-induced structural ordering by FAs during spin coating, which optimizes the microstructure of the films for a better mixed ion and electron transport. These results prove the huge research potential of FAs to improve OECT materials' processability, device performance, and stability, therefore promoting practical bio-applications.

Keywords: aggregation; conductivity and stability; fluorinated alcohols; n-type small-molecule mixed conductor; organic electrochemical transistors; solvent engineering.