FibrillarMICROSTRUCT · Controllable Growth and Charge Carrier Transport of Fibrillar Microstructure of Semiconducting Polymers in Field-Effect Transistors and Photovoltaics
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-03-01 → 2019-02-28
- EU contribution
- €165,599
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
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Results in brief
Controllable Growth and Charge Carrier Transport of Fibrillar Microstructure of Semiconducting Polymers in Field-Effect Transistors and Photovoltaics
The semiconductor technology based on inorganic semiconductors has dramatically accelerated the development of economy, health, information and energy in our modern life. In contrast, the discovery of conducting polymers in the late 1970s opened a new way for semiconductor technology (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000). In comparison to their inorganic counterparts, organic semiconductors exhibit obvious advantages such as low cost, light weight, mechanical flexibility, compatibility with plastic substrates, and mass production of large-area electronic devices. Due to their unique electrical properties, organic semiconductors hold a great potential in applications of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and organic photovoltaics (OPVs). In particular, several European multinational corporations (e.g. Philips, BASF, Siemens) and spin-off companies (e.g. CDT, Plastic Logic, Heliatek) are paving the way to a new business. Considerable achievements have been made for conjugated polymers, but so far it is still a great challenge to tune the microstructure of semiconducting polymers in a controllable way, which allows us to further improve the device performance for both OFETs and OPVs and to deeply understand the mechanism of charge carrier transport in organic electronics. The primary objective of this project is using solution processing to efficiently realize the controllable growth of fibrillar microstructure such as fiber size and orientation for the exactly same polymer(s), to systematically investigate the impact of their microstructure on charge carrier transport in both OFETs and OPVs (multidisciplinary), and finally to reveal the intrinsic mechanism of charge carrier transport in semiconducting polymers (interdisciplinary).
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Semiconducting polymers have attracted extensive attention due to their potential applications in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and organic photovoltaics (OPVs), but it is still a great challenge to modulate their microstructure in a controllable way. In this proposal, I will outline how the controllable growth of a fibrillar microstructure can be realized using diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) polymers. On the one hand, quasi polymer crystals such as fibers or wires will be deposited, leading to the fabrication of high-mobility transistors due to an almost complete elimination of grain boundaries. Such quasi polymer crystals will provide an ideal platform for the investigation of charge carrier transport. On the other hand, hierarchical microstructures of DPP polymers with two distinct characteristic fiber diameters will be grown in polymer/fullerene blend films in a controllable way, in which the thick fibrils (~100 nm) will be beneficial for the charge carrier transport and the thin fibrils (~10 nm) will facilitate the exciton generation and charge separation in polymer solar cells. The controllable growth of a fibrillar microstructure including quasi polymer crystals and hierarchical microstructures will allow me to systematically study the correlation between film microstructure and device performance in both OFETs and OPVs. This will open new prospects for the fabrication of high-performance polymer electronic devices and create the opportunity to reveal the intrinsic mechanism of charge carrier transport in semiconducting polymers.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN · EindhovenCoordinatorNetherlands
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union