The ability to process organic electronics via aqueous solution is highly advantageous for large scale roll-to-roll processing. However, maintaining competitive electronic properties while achieving aqueous solubility is difficult for several reasons. 1) Materials with polar functional groups that provide aqueous solubility can be difficult to purify and characterize. 2) Many traditional coupling and polymerization reactions cannot be performed in aqueous solution. 3) Ionic groups, though useful for obtaining aqueous solubility, can lead to a loss of solid-state order as well as a screening of any applied bias.<br/><br/>As an alternative, a multistage sidechain approach can be taken to obtain desirable processing attributes without sacrificing semiconducting capabilities. The idea behind multistage sidechains is to use a functional group for its intended purpose, then get rid of it once the functionality becomes unnecessary. Through the attachment of multistage sidechains, conjugated materials can be synthesized, characterized, and purified in organic solvent, converted to a water-soluble form for aqueous processing, and brought through a final treatment to leave behind the desired electronic material as a solvent-resistant film. Through this method we demonstrate aqueous processable materials for organic thin film transistors and electrochromics.

Conjugated materials with multistage sidechains for water processable organic electronics

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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