Design and effective synthesis methods for high-performance polymer semiconductors in organic field-effect transistors

To date, versatile polymer semiconductors have been reported for field-effect transistors (FETs). And the third-generation donor–acceptor (D–A) polymers have been among the most intensively studied semiconductors. Meanwhile, there are a variety of methods adopted for the enhancement of performance. To the best of our knowledge, a p-type polymer semiconductor with a highest hole mobility of 52.7 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, an n-type polymer semiconductor with a highest electron mobility of 8.5 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and a balanced ambipolar semiconductor with the highest both hole and electron mobility of over 4 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ have been achieved. This review describes building block selection, backbone halogenation, side chain engineering and random copolymerization, which are the effective synthesis approaches applied in this field, affording assistance for developing high-performance polymer semiconductors in the future.