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Title: The Role of the Side Chain on the Performance of N-type Conjugated Polymers in Aqueous Electrolytes

Journal Article · · Chemistry of Materials
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [8]; ORCiD logo [8];  [9];  [7]; ORCiD logo [10]; ORCiD logo [11];  [8];  [12]; ORCiD logo [13]
  1. Imperial College, London (United Kingdom). Dept. of Chemistry, Dept. of Physics and Centre for Plastic Electronics
  2. Imperial College, London (United Kingdom). Dept. of Chemistry
  3. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
  4. Mines ParisTech, CMP-EMSE, Paris (France). Dept. of Bioelectronics
  5. King Abdullah Univ. of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal (Saudi Arabia). Physical Sciences and Engineering Division and KAUST Solar Center (KSC)
  6. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States). Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
  7. King Abdullah Univ. of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal (Saudi Arabia). Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering
  8. Imperial College, London (United Kingdom). Dept. of Physics and Centre for Plastic Electronics
  9. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Renewable and Sustainable Energy Inst.; National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States). Chemistry and Nanoscience Center
  10. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Renewable and Sustainable Energy Inst. and Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry; National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States). Chemistry and Nanoscience Center
  11. Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom). Electrical Engineering Division
  12. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States). Dept. of Biomedical Engineering and Simpson Querry Inst. for BioNanotechnology
  13. Imperial College, London (United Kingdom). Dept. of Chemistry; King Abdullah Univ. of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal (Saudi Arabia). Physical Sciences and Engineering Division and KAUST Solar Center (KSC)

Here, we report a design strategy that allows the preparation of solution processable n-type materials from low boiling point solvents for organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). The polymer backbone is based on NDI-T2 copolymers where a branched alkyl side chain is gradually exchanged for a linear ethylene glycol-based side chain. A series of random copolymers was prepared with glycol side chain percentages of 0, 10, 25, 50, 75, 90, and 100 with respect to the alkyl side chains. These were characterized to study the influence of the polar side chains on interaction with aqueous electrolytes, their electrochemical redox reactions, and performance in OECTs when operated in aqueous electrolytes. We observed that glycol side chain percentages of >50% are required to achieve volumetric charging, while lower glycol chain percentages show a mixed operation with high required voltages to allow for bulk charging of the organic semiconductor. A strong dependence of the electron mobility on the fraction of glycol chains was found for copolymers based on NDI-T2, with a significant drop as alkyl side chains are replaced by glycol side chains.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division; BASF SE, Ludwigshafen (Germany); Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); European Research Council (ERC); European Union (EU); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308; EP/P02484X/1; EP/G037515/1; EP/M005143/1; EP/N509486/1; EC FP7 Project SC2 (610115); EC H2020 Project SOLEDLIGHT (643791); 742708
OSTI ID:
1440398
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5900-71212
Journal Information:
Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 9; ISSN 0897-4756
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 144 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Principles of Structural Design of Conjugated Polymers Showing Excellent Charge Transport toward Thermoelectrics and Bioelectronics Applications journal March 2019
Glycolated Thiophene‐Tetrafluorophenylene Copolymers for Bioelectronic Applications: Synthesis by Direct Heteroarylation Polymerisation journal June 2019
Amphiphilic polypyrrole-poly(Schiff base) copolymers with poly(ethylene glycol) side chains: synthesis, properties and applications journal January 2018
Balancing Charge Storage and Mobility in an Oligo(Ether) Functionalized Dioxythiophene Copolymer for Organic‐ and Aqueous‐ Based Electrochemical Devices and Transistors journal August 2018
Conjugated electrochromic polymers with amide-containing side chains enabling aqueous electrolyte compatibility journal January 2020
Balancing Ionic and Electronic Conduction for High‐Performance Organic Electrochemical Transistors journal January 2020
Molecular Semiconductors for Logic Operations: Dead‐End or Bright Future? journal January 2020
Design and evaluation of conjugated polymers with polar side chains as electrode materials for electrochemical energy storage in aqueous electrolytes journal January 2019
Using Deep Machine Learning to Understand the Physical Performance Bottlenecks in Novel Thin‐Film Solar Cells journal December 2019
Biofuel powered glucose detection in bodily fluids with an n-type conjugated polymer journal December 2019
Conducting Polymer‐Based Biocomposites Using Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) as Counterion journal November 2019
n-Type organic electrochemical transistors: materials and challenges journal January 2018
Materials in Organic Electrochemical Transistors for Bioelectronic Applications: Past, Present, and Future journal December 2018
Oligo(ethylene glycol) as side chains of conjugated polymers for optoelectronic applications journal January 2020
Role of the Anion on the Transport and Structure of Organic Mixed Conductors journal December 2018
Organic semiconductors for biological sensing journal January 2019
Reversible Electronic Solid–Gel Switching of a Conjugated Polymer journal October 2019
Emerging research directions for n-type conjugated polymers journal January 2019
Solvent Engineering for High‐Performance n‐Type Organic Electrochemical Transistors journal June 2019
A fully inkjet-printed disposable glucose sensor on paper journal December 2018
Design and evaluation of conjugated polymers with polar side chains as electrode materials for electrochemical energy storage in aqueous electrolytes text January 2020
The Mechanism of Dedoping PEDOT:PSS by Aliphatic Polyamines journal September 2019