Issue 22, 2024

Effects of selenium incorporation on the performance of polythiophene based organic electrochemical transistors

Abstract

Selenium incorporation is a widely used strategy for achieving high mobility semiconductors for a variety of organic optoelectronic devices, but it has received less attention in organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). Herein, we developed two polythiophene derivatives (Pg2T-S and Pg2T-SVS) containing different selenophene loadings, as well as a selenophene-free polythiophene (Pg2T-T) as the control. The effects of selenium substitution/incorporation on the optical, electrical, electrochemical, and OECT performance of polythiophene-based organic mixed ionic–electronic conductors are systematically investigated. We discovered that introduction of selenium increases quinoidal character and crystallinity, which is beneficial for charge transport but makes ion penetration more challenging. In contrast, increasing selenium content increases the dipole moment and ion–polymer interaction, which is helpful for ion doping and volumetric capacitance but detrimental to charge transport. Therefore, appropriate selenium content should be evaluated to balance the trade-off between charge transfer and volumetric capacitance. As a result, Pg2T-S with moderate selenium loading achieves a high μC* of 332.7 F cm−1 V−1 s−1 with increased μ of 1.31 cm2 V−1 s−1 and maintains the C* value of 254 F cm−3. It also has a quick τon/τoff of 10.76 ms/5.90 ms and outstanding operational stability. Further introducing selenium boosts the dipole moment and ion–polymer interaction and therefore increased C*, but suppressed μ, resulting in inefficient μC*. We indicated that systematic balancing of the effects of selenium incorporation is necessary for the development of mixed ionic–electronic conductors for high-performance OECTs.

Graphical abstract: Effects of selenium incorporation on the performance of polythiophene based organic electrochemical transistors

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 ⵎⴰⵕ 2024
Accepted
07 ⵎⴰⵢ 2024
First published
08 ⵎⴰⵢ 2024

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2024,12, 7935-7942

Effects of selenium incorporation on the performance of polythiophene based organic electrochemical transistors

M. Li, W. Feng, Y. Lan, Y. Sun, P. Li, J. Li, W. Yang, H. Li, J. Ding and J. Chen, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2024, 12, 7935 DOI: 10.1039/D4TC01226G

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