Inversion of Dominant Polarity in Ambipolar Polydiketopyrrolopyrrole with Thermally Removable Groups

A narrow bandgap polymeric semiconductor, BOC‐PTDPP , comprising alkyl substituted diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) and tert‐butoxycarbonyl (t‐BOC)‐protected DPP, is synthesized and used in organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs). The polymer films are prepared by solution deposition and thermal annealing of precursors featuring thermally labile t‐BOC groups. The effects of the thermal cleavage on the molecular packing structure in the polymer thin films are investigated using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), UV‐vis spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy, and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Upon utilization of solution‐shearing process, integrating the ambipolar BOC‐PTDPP into transistors shows p‐channel dominant characteristics, resulting in hole and electron mobilities as high as 1.32 × 10^?2 cm² V^?1 s^?1 and 2.63 × 10^?3 cm² V^?1 s^?1, which are about one order of magnitude higher than those of the drop‐cast films. Very intriguingly, the dominant polarity of charge carriers changes from positive to negative after the thermal cleavage of t‐BOC groups at 200 °C. The solution‐sheared films upon subsequent thermal treatment show superior electron mobility (μ_e = 4.60 × 10^?2 cm² V^?1 s^?1), while the hole mobility decreases by one order of magnitude (μ_h = 4.30 × 10^?3 cm² V^?1 s^?1). The inverter constructed with the combination of two identical ambipolar OFETs exhibits a gain of ～10. Reported here for the first time is a viable approach to selectively tune dominant polarity of charge carriers in solution‐processed ambipolar OFETs, which highlights the electronically tunable ambipolarity of thermocleavable polymer by simple thermal treatment.     

Synergistically Improved Molecular Doping and Carrier Mobility by Copolymerization of Donor–Acceptor and Donor–Donor Building Blocks for Thermoelectric Application

In this work, it is demonstrated that random copolymerization is a simple but effective strategy to obtain new conductive copolymers as high‐performance thermoelectric materials. By using a polymerizing acceptor unit diketopyrropyrrole with donor units thienothiophene and oligo ethylene glycol substituted bithiophene (g₃2T), it is found that strong interchain donor–acceptor interactions ensure good film crystallinity for charge transport, while donor–donor type building blocks contribute to effective charge transfers. Hall effect measurements show that the high electrical conductivity results from increased free carriers with simultaneously improved mobility reaching over 1 cm² V^?1 s^?1. The synergistic effect of improved molecular doping and carrier mobility, as well as a high Seebeck coefficient ascribed to the structural disorder along polymer chains via random copolymerization, results in an impressive power factor up to 110 µW K^?2 m^?1 which is 10 times higher than that of solution‐processed polythiophenes.     

Efficient DPP Donor and Nonfullerene Acceptor Organic Solar Cells with High Photon‐to‐Current Ratio and Low Energetic Loss

The high crystallinity and ability to harvest near‐infrared photons make diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)‐based polymers one of the most promising donors for high performing organic solar cells (OSCs). However, DPP‐based OSC devices still suffer from the trade‐off between energetic loss (E_loss) and maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE_max), which significantly hinders their potential. Thus far, the replacement of fullerenes with small molecule acceptors did not wisdom the performance development of DPP‐donor‐based solar cells due to severe charge recombination issues. In this work, efficient DPP‐based solar cells are reported using low bandgap fused ring electron acceptor, IEICO‐4F. PBDTT‐DPP:IEICO‐4F OSC devices deliver a champion power conversion efficiency of 9.66% with successful interface engineering along with low E_loss of 0.57 eV and a high EQE_max (>70%).     

Crystalline Conjugated Polymers for Organic Solar Cells: From Donor,Acceptor to Single‐Component

Organic solar cells have made rapid progress in the last two decades due to the innovation of conjugated materials and photovoltaic devices. Microphase separation that connects with materials and devices plays a crucial role in the charge generation process. In this account, we summary our recent works of developing new crystalline conjugated polymers to control the microphase separation in thin films in order to realize high performance in solar cells, including crystalline diketopyrrolopyrrole‐based donor polymers, perylene bisimide‐based electron acceptors, and “double‐cable” conjugated polymers that contain covalently‐linked crystalline donor and acceptor in one material for single‐component organic solar cells.     

Layer‐by‐Layer Conjugated Extension of a Semiconducting Polymer for High‐Performance Organic Field‐Effect Transistor

A donor–acceptor (D–A) semiconducting copolymer, PDPP‐TVT‐29, comprising a diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) derivative with long, linear, space‐separated alkyl side‐chains and thiophene vinylene thiophene (TVT) for organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs) can form highly π‐conjugated structures with an edge‐on molecular orientation in an as‐spun film. In particular, the layer‐like conjugated film morphologies can be developed via short‐term thermal annealing above 150 °C for 10 min. The strong intermolecular interaction, originating from the fused DPP and D–A interaction, leads to the spontaneous self‐assembly of polymer chains within close proximity (with π‐overlap distance of 3.55 Å) and forms unexpectedly long‐range π‐conjugation, which is favorable for both intra‐ and intermolecular charge transport. Unlike intergranular nanorods in the as‐spun film, well‐conjugated layers in the 200 °C‐annealed film can yield more efficient charge‐transport pathways. The granular morphology of the as‐spun PDPP‐TVT‐29 film produces a field‐effect mobility (μ _FET) of 1.39 cm² V^?1 s^?1 in an OFET based on a polymer‐treated SiO₂ dielectric, while the 27‐Å‐step layered morphology in the 200 °C‐annealed films shows high μ _FET values of up to 3.7 cm² V^?1 s^?1.