High-Efficiency Ion-Exchange Doping of Conducting Polymers.

Molecular doping-the use of redox-active small molecules as dopants for organic semiconductors-has seen a surge in research interest driven by emerging applications in sensing, bioelectronics, and thermoelectrics. However, molecular doping carries with it several intrinsic problems stemming directly from the redox-active character of these materials. A recent breakthrough was a doping technique based on ion-exchange, which separates the redox and charge compensation steps of the doping process. Here, the equilibrium and kinetics of ion exchange doping in a model system, poly(2,5-bis(3-alkylthiophen-2-yl)thieno(3,2-b)thiophene) (PBTTT) doped with FeCl3 and an ionic liquid, is studied, reaching conductivities in excess of 1000 S cm-1 and ion exchange efficiencies above 99%. Several factors that enable such high performance, including the choice of acetonitrile as the doping solvent, which largely eliminates electrolyte association effects and dramatically increases the doping strength of FeCl3 , are demonstrated. In this high ion exchange efficiency regime, a simple connection between electrochemical doping and ion exchange is illustrated, and it is shown that the performance and stability of highly doped PBTTT is ultimately limited by intrinsically poor stability at high redox potential.

Charge transport physics of a unique class of rigid-rod conjugated polymers with fused-ring conjugated units linked by double carbon-carbon bonds.

We investigate the charge transport physics of a previously unidentified class of electron-deficient conjugated polymers that do not contain any single bonds linking monomer units along the backbone but only double-bond linkages. Such polymers would be expected to behave as rigid rods, but little is known about their actual chain conformations and electronic structure. Here, we present a detailed study of the structural and charge transport properties of a family of four such polymers. By adopting a copolymer design, we achieve high electron mobilities up to 0.5 cm2 V-1 s-1 Field-induced electron spin resonance measurements of charge dynamics provide evidence for relatively slow hopping over, however, long distances. Our work provides important insights into the factors that limit charge transport in this unique class of polymers and allows us to identify molecular design strategies for achieving even higher levels of performance.

Charge and Thermoelectric Transport in Polymer-Sorted Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Networks.

Understanding the charge transport mechanisms in chirality-selected single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) networks and the influence of network parameters is essential for further advances of their optoelectronic and thermoelectric applications. Here, we report on charge density and temperature-dependent field-effect mobility and on-chip field-effect-modulated Seebeck coefficient measurements of polymer-sorted monochiral small-diameter (6,5) (0.76 nm) and mixed large-diameter SWCNT (1.17-1.55 nm) networks (plasma torch nanotubes, RN) with different network densities and length distributions. All untreated networks display balanced ambipolar transport and electron-hole symmetric Seebeck coefficients. We show that charge and thermoelectric transport in SWCNT networks can be modeled by the Boltzmann transport formalism, incorporating transport in heterogeneous media and fluctuation-induced tunneling. Considering the diameter-dependent one-dimensional density of states (DoS) of the SWCNTs composing the network, we can simulate the charge density and temperature-dependent Seebeck coefficients. Our simulations suggest that scattering in these networks cannot be described as simple one-dimensional acoustic and optical phonon scattering as for single SWCNTs. Instead the relaxation time is inversely proportional to energy (τ ∝ (E - EC)s, s = -1, EC being the energy of the first van Hove singularity), presumably pointing toward the more two-dimensional character of scattering events and the necessity to include scattering at the SWCNT junctions. Finally, our observation of higher power factors in trap-free, 1,2,4,5-tetrakis(tetramethylguanidino)benzene-treated (6,5) networks than in the RN networks emphasizes the importance of chirality selection to tune the width of the DoS. To benefit from both higher intrinsic mobilities and a large thermally accessible DoS, we propose trap-free, narrow DoS distribution, large-diameter SWCNT networks for both electronic and thermoelectric applications.

Resolving Different Physical Origins toward Crystallite Imperfection in Semiconducting Polymers: Crystallite Size vs Paracrystallinity.

The crystallization and aggregation behaviors of semiconducting polymers play a critical role in determining the ultimate performance of optoelectronic devices based on these materials. Due to the soft nature of polymers, crystallite imperfection exists ubiquitously. To this aspect, crystallinity is often used to represent the degree of crystallite imperfection in a reciprocal relation. Despite of the importance, the discussion on crystallinity is still on the phenomenological level and ambiguous in many cases. As two major contributors to crystallite imperfection, crystallite size and paracrystallinity are highly intertwined and hardly separated, hindering more accurate and trustworthy structural analysis. Herein, with the aid of synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction, combined with environmentally controlled heating capability, the evolution of crystallite size and paracrystallinity of two prototypical polythiophene-based thin films have been successfully measured. Strikingly, the paracrystallinity of poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) crystallites remains unchanged with annealing, while the paracrystallinity of poly[2,5-bis(3-tetradecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene] (PBTTT) becomes diminished with crystallite growth. This work delivers a promising gesture to semiconducting polymers community, confirming that it is possible to experimentally separate crystallite size and paracrystallinity, both of which are highly intertwined. With this progress, investigation on the correlation between further detailed microstructural parameters and device performance can be achieved.