semiconducting polymer tagged posts

A Flexible Transistor that conforms to Skin

A researcher demonstrates the efficacy of a flexible transistor, as it is stretched, twisted and poked. Credit: J. Xu et al., Science (2016)

A researcher demonstrates the efficacy of a flexible transistor, as it is stretched, twisted and poked. Credit: J. Xu et al., Science (2016)

Researchers have created a stretchy transistor that can be elongated to twice its length with only minimal changes in its conductivity. The development is a valuable advancement for the field of wearable electronics. To date, it has been difficult to design a transistor using inherently stretchable materials that maintains its conductivity upon being stretched. Jie Xu devised a clever and scalable way to confine organic conductors inside a rubbery polymer to create stretchy transistors. They took a semiconducting polymer, called DPPT-TT, and confined it inside another polymer, SEBS, which has elastic properties.

As the two polymers don’t like to mix w...

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Researchers develop new Semiconducting Polymer for forthcoming Flexible Electronics

While high-mobility p-type conjugated polymers have been widely reported, high-mobility n-type conjugated polymers are still rare. In the present work, we designed semifluorinated alkyl side chains and introduced them into naphthalene diimide-based polymers (PNDIF-T2 and PNDIF-TVT). We found that the strong self-organization of these side chains induced a high degree of order in the attached polymer backbones by forming a superstructure composed of “backbone crystals” and “side-chain crystals”. This phenomenon was shown to greatly enhance the ordering along the backbone direction, and the resulting polymers thus exhibited unipolar n-channel transport in field-effect transistors with remarkably high electron mobility values of up to 6.50 cm2 V–1 s–1 and with a high on–off current ratio of 105.

While high-mobility p-type conjugated polymers have been widely reported, high-mobility n-type conjugated polymers are still rare. In the present work, we designed semifluorinated alkyl side chains and introduced them into naphthalene diimide-based polymers (PNDIF-T2 and PNDIF-TVT). We found that the strong self-organization of these side chains induced a high degree of order in the attached polymer backbones by forming a superstructure composed of “backbone crystals” and “side-chain crystals”. This phenomenon was shown to greatly enhance the ordering along the backbone direction, and the resulting polymers thus exhibited unipolar n-channel transport in field-effect transistors with remarkably high electron mobility values of up to 6...

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