Unraveling the Molecular Weight Dependence of High Magnetic Field to Manipulate the Semiconducting Polymer Molecular Orientation

Abstract

The magnetic alignment of molecules, which exploits the anisotropy of diamagnetic susceptibility, provides a clean and versatile approach to the structural manipulation of semiconducting polymers. Here, the magnetic-alignment dynamics of two molecular-weight (M W ) batches of a diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based copolymer (PDVT-8) were investigated. Microstructural characterizations revealed that the magnetically aligned, high-M W (M n = 53.7 kDa) PDVT-8 film exhibited a higher degree of backbone chain alignment and film crystallinity compared with the low-M W (M n = 17.6 kDa) PDVT-8 film grown via the same magnetic alignment method. We found that as the M W increases, the degree of preaggregation of the polymer molecules in solution significantly increases and the aggregation mode changes from H-aggregation to J-aggregation through a cooperative assembly mechanism. These events improved the responsiveness of high-M W polymer molecules to magnetic fields. Field-effect transistors based on the magnetic aligned high-M W PDVT-8 films exhibited a 6.8-fold increase in hole mobility compared to the spin-coated films, along with a mobility anisotropy ratio of 12.6. This work establishes a significant correlation among chain aggregation behavior in solution, polymer film microstructures, magnetic responsiveness, and carrier transport performance in donor−acceptor polymer systems.