Understanding polymorphism in organic semiconductor thin films through nanoconfinement

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftForschungsartikelBeigetragenBegutachtung

Beitragende

  • Ying Diao - , Stanford University, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) (Autor:in)
  • Kristina M. Lenn - , Cornell University (Autor:in)
  • Wen Ya Lee - , Stanford University (Autor:in)
  • Martin A. Blood-Forsythe - , Harvard University (Autor:in)
  • Jie Xu - , Nanjing University (Autor:in)
  • Yisha Mao - , Stanford University (Autor:in)
  • Yeongin Kim - , Stanford University (Autor:in)
  • Julia A. Reinspach - , Stanford University (Autor:in)
  • Steve Park - , Stanford University (Autor:in)
  • Alán Aspuru-Guzik - , Harvard University (Autor:in)
  • Gi Xue - , Nanjing University (Autor:in)
  • Paulette Clancy - , Cornell University (Autor:in)
  • Zhenan Bao - , Stanford University, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) (Autor:in)
  • Stefan C.B. Mannsfeld - , Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (Autor:in)

Abstract

Understanding crystal polymorphism is a long-standing challenge relevant to many fields, such as pharmaceuticals, organic semiconductors, pigments, food, and explosives. Controlling polymorphism of organic semiconductors (OSCs) in thin films is particularly important given that such films form the active layer in most organic electronics devices and that dramatic changes in the electronic properties can be induced even by small changes in the molecular packing. However, there are very few polymorphic OSCs for which the structure-property relationships have been elucidated so far. The major challenges lie in the transient nature of metastable forms and the preparation of phase-pure, highly crystalline thin films for resolving the crystal structures and evaluating the charge transport properties. Here we demonstrate that the nanoconfinement effect combined with the flow-enhanced crystal engineering technique is a powerful and likely material-agnostic method to identify existing polymorphs in OSC materials and to prepare the individual pure forms in thin films at ambient conditions. With this method we prepared high quality crystal polymorphs and resolved crystal structures of 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene (TIPS-pentacene), including a new polymorph discovered via in situ grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and confirmed by molecular mechanic simulations. We further correlated molecular packing with charge transport properties using quantum chemical calculations and charge carrier mobility measurements. In addition, we applied our methodology to a [1]benzothieno[3,2-b][1]1benzothiophene (BTBT) derivative and successfully stabilized its metastable form.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)17046-17057
Seitenumfang12
FachzeitschriftJournal of the American Chemical Society
Jahrgang136
Ausgabenummer49
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 10 Dez. 2014
Peer-Review-StatusJa