Issue 43, 2020

High-density polyethylene—an inert additive with stabilizing effects on organic field-effect transistors

Abstract

Organic electronics technologies have attracted considerable interest over the last few decades and have become promising alternatives to conventional, inorganic platforms for specific applications. To fully exploit the touted potential of plastic electronics, however, other prerequisites than only electronic functions need to be fulfiled, including good mechanical stability, ease of processing and high device reliability. A possible method to overcome these issues is the employment of insulating:semiconducting polymer blends, which have been demonstrated to display favourable rheological and mechanical properties, generally provided by the insulating component, without negatively affecting the optoelectronic performance of the semiconductor. Here, we demonstrate that binary blends comprising the semicrystalline high-density polyethylene (HDPE) in combination with hole- and electron-transporting organic semiconductors allow fabrication of p-type and n-type thin-film transistors of notably improved device stability and, in some scenarios, improved device performance. We observe, for example, considerably lower subthreshold slopes and drastically reduced bias-stress effects in devices fabricated with a hole-transporting diketopyrrolopyrrole polymer derivative when blended with HDPE and significantly enhanced charge-carrier mobilities and shelf life in case of transistors made with blends between HDPE and the electron-transporting poly{[N,N′-bis(2-octyldodecyl)-naphthalene-1,4,5,8-bis(dicarboximide)2,6-diyl]-alt-5,5′-(2,2′-bithiophene)}, i.e. P(NDI2OD-T2), also known as N2200, compared to the neat material, highlighting the broad, versatile benefits blending semiconducting species with a semicrystalline commodity polymer can have.

Graphical abstract: High-density polyethylene—an inert additive with stabilizing effects on organic field-effect transistors

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 jul. 2020
Accepted
11 sep. 2020
First published
11 sep. 2020

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2020,8, 15406-15415

Author version available

High-density polyethylene—an inert additive with stabilizing effects on organic field-effect transistors

A. D. Scaccabarozzi, J. I. Basham, L. Yu, P. Westacott, W. Zhang, A. Amassian, I. McCulloch, M. Caironi, D. J. Gundlach and N. Stingelin, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2020, 8, 15406 DOI: 10.1039/D0TC03173A

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