Plastic Deformation of Polymer Blends as a Means to Achieve Stretchable Organic Transistors

Abstract

Intrinsically stretchable semiconductors will facilitate the realization of seamlessly integrated stretchable electronics. However, to date demonstrations of intrinsically stretchable semiconductors have been limited. In this study, a new approach to achieve intrinsically stretchable semiconductors is introduced by blending a rigid high-performance donor-acceptor polymer semiconductor poly[4(4,4dihexadecyl4Hcyclopenta [1,2b:5,4b' ] dithiopen2yl) alt [1,2,5] thiadiazolo [3,4c] pyridine] (PCDTPT) with a ductile polymer semiconductor poly(3hexylthiophene) (P3HT). Under large tensile strains of up to 75%, the polymers are shown to orient in the direction of strain, and when the strain is reduced, the polymers reversibly deform. During cyclic strain, the local packing order of the polymers is shown to be remarkably stable. The saturated field effect charge mobility is shown to be consistently above 0.04 cm2 V-1s-1 for up to 100 strain cycles with strain ranging from 10% to 75% when the film is printed onto a rigid test bed. At the 75% strain state, the charge mobility is consistently above 0.15 cm2 V-1s-1. Ultimately, the polymer blend process introduced here results in an excellent combination of device performance and stretchability providing an effective approach to achieve intrinsically stretchable semiconductors.

Flexible Field-Effect Transistor-Type Sensors Based on Conjugated Molecules

“…Recently, approaches to developing stretchable organic semiconductor-based OFETs, such as introducing nanoconfinement effects, 110,111 sophisticated molecular designs for polymer semiconductors, 112 and a polymer blend system, 113 have been suggested. However, application of stretchable organic semiconductors to highly stable organic sensors has scarcely been reported.…”

Self‐Healable and Stretchable Organic Thermoelectric Materials: Electrically Percolated Polymer Nanowires Embedded in Thermoplastic Elastomer Matrix

“…However, commercialized TE devices and modules are based on inorganic materials, which are generally intrinsically brittle, although some inorganic thin films can maintain their high TE performance under low bending stresses . In this regard, organic materials are promising alternatives to inorganic materials because of the unique mechanical properties of the former, including their stretchability and self‐healing properties . In addition, organic materials are lightweight, naturally abundant in compositional atoms, environmentally friendly, and easy to process, all of which can be comparative advantages over inorganic TE materials …”

In situ measurements of the structure and strain of a π-conjugated semiconducting polymer under mechanical load

“…The development of polymer-based devices has shown tremendous progress in term of flexibility as well as stretchability, whether in OLEDs, [1,2] OFETs, [3,4] or OPV. [5,6,7] It opens extremely promising opportunities and wide research area for innovative and cheap devices.…”