Improving the field-effect transistor performance of (E)-1,2-di(thiophen-2-yl)ethenyl-co-naphthalenyl-based polymers by introducing alkoxy sidechains

Abstract Three donor-donor type conjugated polymers (namely PTVTN1, PTVTN2 and PTVTN3) are designed and synthesized containing naphthalene unit with different sidechain substitutions. The introducing of alkoxy sidechains on the naphthalene unit could mitigate the polymer backbone twisting through S···O non-covalent interactions and therefore improve the charge carrier mobility. Besides, different sidechain positions also have a significant impact on the molecular orientation and charge carrier mobility. The best field-effect transistor (FET) mobility of 0.014 cm2/Vs is achieved based on PTVTN3 as-cast device, which is due to the favorable edge-on orientation, interdigitation and fine fiber network morphology. This work shows that how sidechains influence the polymer morphology and charge carrier mobility.