Molecular weight dependent structure and charge transport in MAPLE‐deposited poly(3‐hexylthiophene) thin films
Abstract
In this work, poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) films prepared using the matrix‐assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE) technique are shown to possess morphological structures that are dependent on molecular weight (MW). Specifically, the structures of low MW samples of MAPLE‐deposited film are composed of crystallites/aggregates embedded within highly disordered environments, whereas those of high MW samples are composed of aggregated domains connected by long polymer chains. Additionally, the crystallite size along the side‐chain (100) direction decreases, whereas the conjugation length increases with increasing molecular weight. This is qualitatively similar to the structure of spin‐cast films, though the MAPLE‐deposited films are more disordered. In‐plane carrier mobilities in the MAPLE‐deposited samples increase with MW, consistent with the notion that longer chains bridge adjacent aggregated domains thereby facilitating more effective charge transport. The carrier mobilities in the MAPLE‐deposited simples are consistently lower than those in the solvent‐cast samples for all molecular weights, consistent with the shorter conjugation length in samples prepared by this deposition technique. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2018, 56, 652–662
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Feb 06, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1002/polb.24588
Entities
People
- Anne J. McNeil
- Ban Xuan Dong
- Gila E Stein
- Huanghe Li
- Joseph W Strzalka
- Mitchell Smith
- Peter F Green
Organizations
- Argonne National Laboratory
- Army Research Office
- Division of Materials Research
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- National Science Foundation
- University of Michigan
- University of Tennessee
- Vietnam Education Foundation