Issue 24, 2023

The fluorination effect: the importance of backbone planarity in achieving high performance ambipolar field effect transistors

Abstract

We report here the synthesis and physico-chemical characterization of a series of donor–acceptor (D–A) copolymers consisting of 4,7-di(2-thienyl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole and isoindigo building blocks, which have been progressively fluorinated with the aim of enhancing intrachain interactions and thus increasing their electrical performances in organic field effect transistors (OFETs). The effect of the polymeric partially locked conformations, upon fluorination, on the material properties has been comprehensively analyzed by means of spectroscopic (UV-vis-NIR and Raman) and electrochemical techniques and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Raman spectroscopy highlights that the impact of gradual fluorination on the molecular and electronic properties is highly dependent on the building blocks into which the fluorine atoms are introduced, being a much more efficient strategy to add them in the isoindigo unit. Electrical characterization of OFETs also shows that fluorination progressively increases the polymer coplanarity and electron affinity, varying the electrical performance from low hole dominated charge transport in the unfluorinated polymer to balanced ambipolar charge transport in the fluorinated ones. The best field-effect mobilities were recorded when fluorine atoms were added to the isoindigo unit, with values of 0.1 cm2 V−1 s−1 for both hole and electron transports.

Graphical abstract: The fluorination effect: the importance of backbone planarity in achieving high performance ambipolar field effect transistors

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 nov. 2022
Accepted
30 dic. 2022
First published
12 ene. 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2023,11, 8027-8036

The fluorination effect: the importance of backbone planarity in achieving high performance ambipolar field effect transistors

S. Gámez-Valenzuela, M. Comí, S. R. González, M. C. R. Delgado, M. Al-Hashimi and R. Ponce Ortiz, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2023, 11, 8027 DOI: 10.1039/D2TC05073K

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements