Aggregation control in natural brush-printed conjugated polymer films and implications for enhancing charge transport

Abstract

Shear-printing of electroactive polymers using natural brushes is a promising film deposition technique for printed electronics capable of microstructure control and electrical properties enhancement over large areas. Nevertheless, the interplay between film printing parameters, microstructure development, and charge transport is not well-understood. We report that natural brush-printing greatly enhances charge transport by as much as 5.7× through control of polymer nanofibril aggregate growth and backbone alignment, attributable to the oriented squamae of the natural hair. However, while brush shear-induced aggregation enhances charge transport, we show that backbone alignment alone does not guarantee charge transport anisotropy. These results provide additional understanding of shear-induced enhanced charge transport and set processing guidelines for high-performance printed organic circuitry.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Nov 06, 2017
Source ID
10.1073/pnas.1713634114

Entities

People

  • Antonio Facchetti
  • Binghao Wang
  • Eric F. Manley
  • Ferdinand S Melkonyan
  • Gang Wang
  • Li Zeng
  • Lin Chen
  • Michael Bedzyk
  • Nicholas D. Eastham
  • Ran Li
  • Robert. P. H. Chang
  • Simone Fabiano
  • Tobin J. Marks
  • Wei Huang
  • Xinan Zhang
  • Zhihua Chen

Organizations

  • Argonne National Laboratory
  • Formas
  • Linköping University
  • Northwestern University
  • Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems
  • United States Department of Commerce

Tags

Readers

  • Nanocomposite Materials Science

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics