Understanding Assembly Pathways of Conjugated Polymers for Printing High Performance Electronics and
Abstract
Over the past sixty years, electronics have changed the way we live. In the coming decades, these materials will revolutionize the w,ay we harvest energy as well. Recent years, semiconducting and conducting polymers have emerged as a new class of electronic and opt,oelectronic materials that are light-weight, flexible and can be solution printed at low cost and high throughput. Semiconducting an,d conducting polymers have demonstrated potential uses in a diverse range of applications from transistors, thermoelectrics, sensors,, light-emitting diodes to solar cells. Last thirty years have witnessed over six orders of magnitude improvements in charge carrier, mobilities of semiconducting polymers thanks to rapid materials and processing innovation. Polymer solar cells have also exceeded p,ower conversion efficiency of 18%, pointing towards a bright future for semiconducting polymers. In particular, rapid, low-cost manu,facturing of portable, flexible, wearable energy conversion and electronic devices over large area is highly desired for military op,erations in naval environment. Solution printable semiconducting polymers hold great promise to fulfill this mission. On the other h,and, the electronic performance of semiconducting and conducting polymers cannot yet compete with conventional high-performance elec,tronics, which greatly limit the commercial viability and military applications of this promising technology. Equilibrium and non-eq,uilibrium solution state aggregation and solution state structure is a critical factor determining the performance of a wide range o,f organic electronic devices, from transistors to doped thermoelectrics and organic photovoltaics. Despite its significance, it rema,ins a key challenge to control solution state aggregation, largely owing to the lack of understanding how solution state aggregation, depends on molecular structure, solvent quality and processing conditions. To address this challenge, the proposed work will elucid,ate the precise structures of conjugated-polymer solutions at equilibrium, the non-equilibrium assembly pathways during solution pri,nting, and their relations with molecular design, thin-film morphology, and printed device performance. Such a fundamental understa,nding will open several remarkable opportunities: (1) Designing processing-resilient conjugated polymers by prescribing their soluti,on aggregation properties to attain high and stable device performance over a wide processing window; (2) Generating previously unkn,own assembled structures (e.g., chiral helices) that give rise to novel redox and opto-electronic properties that can be precisely c,ontrolled through processing. (3) Developing new additive manufacturing approaches capable of directing assembly to significantly en,hance device properties, or even dynamically modulate properties on the fly. If successful, this will be the first time that the so,lution state aggregation can be designed and controlled rationally. This capability will significantly advance the prospect of milit,ary applications of printed electronics, by enabling rapid, low-cost, high-throughput fabrication of high-performance, light-weight, and wearable electronic and energy conversion devices. The envisioned applications range from large-area portable, rollable, wearab,le energy conversion devices for harvesting solar energy and waste heat on demand during field operations, to imperceptible electron,ics for personalized soldier health monitoring and threat detection.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 05, 2022
- Source ID
- N000142212202
Entities
People
- Ying Diao
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign