Polyethylene and Semiconducting Polymer Blends for the Fabrication of Organic Field-Effect Transistors: Balancing Charge Transport and Stretchability

Abstract

Polyethylene is amongst the most used polymers, finding a plethora of applications in our lives owing to its high impact resistance, non-corrosive nature, light weight, cost effectiveness, and easy processing into various shapes from different sizes. Despite these outstanding features, the commodity polymer has been underexplored in the field of organic electronics. This work focuses on the development of new polymer blends based on a low molecular weight linear polyethylene (LPE) derivative with a high-performance diketopyrrolopyrrole-based semiconducting polymer. Physical blending of the polyethylene with semiconducting polymers was performed at ratios varying from 0 to 75 wt.%, and the resulting blends were carefully characterized to reveal their electronic and solid-state properties. The new polymer blends were also characterized to reveal the influence of polyethylene on the mechanical robustness and stretchability of the semiconducting polymer. Overall, the introduction of LPE was shown to have little to no effect on the solid-state properties of the materials, despite some influence on solid-state morphology through phase separation. Organic field-effect transistors prepared from the new blends showed good device characteristics, even at higher ratios of polyethylene, with an average mobility of 0.151 cm2 V−1 s−1 at a 25 wt.% blend ratio. The addition of polyethylene was shown to have a plasticizing effect on the semiconducting polymers, helping to reduce crack width upon strain and contributing to devices accommodating more strain without suffering from decreased performance. The new blends presented in this work provide a novel platform from which to access more mechanically robust organic electronics and show promising features for the utilization of polyethylene for the solution processing of advanced semiconducting materials toward novel soft electronics and sensors.

Tailoring the mechanical properties of benzothiadiazole-based semiconducting polymers through chalcogen atom substitution

“…To measure the charge mobilities upon stretching, a lamination procedure adapted from previous literature 44,45 was used to laminate the semiconducting polymer films onto PDMS. The resulting thin films supported on PDMS were stretched to 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30% strain, and laminated back to Si wafers.…”

Stretchable and Self‐Healable Semiconductive Composites Based on Hydrogen Bonding Cross‐linked Elastomeric Matrix

“…is a straightforward and effective approach to create stretchable semiconductors. [44,45,55,[46][47][48][50][51][52][53][54] For example, Bao et al blended SEBS with poly(2,5-bis(2-octyldodecyl)-3,6-di(thiophen-2-yl)diketopyrrolo [3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione-alt-thieno [3,2b]thiophen (DPPT-TT) fabricating DPPT-TT/SEBS semiconducting composite. [48] Utilizing the conjugated polymer/elastomer phase separation-induced elasticity (CONPHINE) method, the high charge mobility of ≈1 cm 2 V −1 s −1 was successfully retained even at 100% strain.…”

Highly Deformable Rigid Glassy Conjugated Polymeric Thin Films

“…[34][35][36][37][38] Another effective method involves blending CPs with soft and deformable elastomers, such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), rubber, or polystyrene-block-polyisoprene-block-polystyrene (SEBS), resulting in the fabrication of soft CP/elastomer composites. [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] These strategies have demonstrated success in achieving stretchability in CPs and have provided solutions for the development of innovative materials for various applications.…”