Control of molecular ordering, alignment, and charge transport in solution-processed conjugated polymer thin films

Abstract

Morphology of conjugated polymers is a critical factor that significantly affects intrinsiccharge transport characteristics and in turn performance of polymer-based devices. Morphologicaldefects including misaligned crystalline grains and grain boundaries significantly impede efficientcharge hopping between transport sites, resulting in degradation of device performance. Therefore,one important challenge is to control morphology of active polymer thin-films for achieving highperformance flexible electronic devices. In the past decade, significant progress has been achieved inmorphology control of conjugated polymer thin-films using solution-based processing techniques.This review focuses on recent advances in processing strategies that can tune the morphologies andthus impact charge transport properties of conjugated polymer thin films. Of the available processingstrategies, polymer solution treatments and film deposition techniques will be mainly highlighted.The correlation between processing conditions, active layer morphologies, and device performancewill be also be discussed.