Electrospray-processed soluble acenes toward the realization of high-performance field-effect transistors

Charalampos Pitsalidis, Anna Maria Pappa, Simon Hunter, Marcia M. Payne, John E. Anthony, Thomas D. Anthopoulos, Stergios Logothetidis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

25 Scopus citations

Abstract

Functionalized acenes have proven to be promising compounds in the field of molecular electronics because of their unique features in terms of the stability, performance, and ease of processing. The emerging concept of large-area-compatible techniques for flexible electronics has brought about a wide variety of well-established techniques for the deposition of soluble acenes, with spray-coating representing an especially fruitful approach. In the present study, electrostatic spray deposition is proposed as an alternative to the conventional spray-coating processes, toward the realization of high-performance organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), on both rigid and flexible substrates. Particularly, a thorough study on the effect of the solvent and spraying regime on the resulting crystalline film's morphology is performed. By optimization of the process conditions in terms of control over the size as well as the crystallization scheme of the droplets, desirable morphological features along with high-quality crystal domains are obtained. The fabricated OFETs exhibit excellent electrical characteristics, with high field-effect mobility up to 0.78 cm2/(V s), Ion/Ioff >104, and near-zero threshold voltages. Additionally, the good performance of the OFETs realized on plastic substrates gives great potentiality to the proposed method for applications in the challenging field of large-area electronics.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6496-6504
Number of pages9
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume7
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Chemical Society.

Funding

FundersFunder number
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research CouncilEP/J021199/1

    Keywords

    • electrostatic spray deposition
    • flexible transistors
    • organic field-effect transistors
    • soluble acenes
    • solution processing

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Materials Science

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