Poly(alkoxyphenylene−thienylene) Langmuir−Schäfer Thin Films for Advanced Performance Transistors

Solution processed Langmuir−Schäfer and cast thin films of regioregular poly(2,5-dioctyloxy-1,4-phenylene-alt-2,5-thienylene) are investigated as transistor active layers. The study of their field-effect properties evidences that no transistor behavior can be seen with a cast film channel material. This was not surprising considering the twisted conformation of the polymer backbone predicted by various theoretical studies. Strikingly, the Langmuir−Schäfer (LS) thin films exhibit a field-effect mobility of 5 × 10^-4 cm²/V·s, the highest attained so far with an alkoxy-substituted conjugated polymer. Extensive optical, morphological, and structural thin-film characterization supports the attribution of the effect to the longer conjugation length achieved in the Langmuir−Schäfer deposited film, likely due to an improved backbone planarity. This study shows that a technologically appealing deposition procedure, such as the LS one, can be exploited to significantly improve the inherently poor field-effect properties of twisted conjugated backbones. This achievement could promote the exploitation for electronic, and possibly sensing, applications of the wealth of opportunities offered by the alkoxy substitution on the phenylene units for convenient tailoring of the phenylene−thienylene backbone with molecules of chemical and biological interest.