Polymer film-producing methods and devices produced therefrom
Described herein are improved methods of forming polymer films, the polymer films formed thereby, and electronic devices formed form the polymer films. The methods generally include contacting a polymer with a solvent to at least partially solvate the polymer in the solvent, exposing the at least partially solvated polymer and solvent to ultrasonic energy for a duration effective to form a plurality of ordered assemblies of the polymer in the solvent, and forming a solid film of the polymer, wherein the solid film comprises the plurality of ordered assemblies of the polymer.
1. A method, comprising:
contacting a polymer with a solvent to at least partially solvate the polymer in the solvent;
exposing the at least partially solvated polymer and solvent to ultrasonic energy for a duration effective to form a plurality of ordered assemblies of the polymer in the solvent; and
forming a solid film of the polymer, wherein the solid film comprises the plurality of ordered assemblies of the polymer,
wherein the polymer is a conjugated polymer.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising forming an electronic device from the solid film of the polymer.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the conjugated polymer is a rigid-rod conjugated polymer.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer is a polythiophene or derivative thereof.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the polymer is poly(3-hexylthiophene).
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a weight average molecular weight of the polymer is at least about 15 kiloDaltons.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the solvent completely solvates the polymer during the contacting.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the solvent does not allow solute-solute interactions to dominate over solvent-solute interactions.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ultrasonic energy causes individual chains of the polymer to disentangle from each other, and aggregate to form the plurality of ordered assemblies.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of ordered assemblies are at least nanocrystalline in size.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the solid film of the polymer comprises a carrier mobility of at least one order of magnitude greater than a solid film formed without the exposing.
12. A polymer film formed from the method of claim 1 .
13. An electronic device formed from the method of claim 2 .
14. A method, comprising:
contacting poly(3-hexylthiophene) with a solvent to at least partially solvate the poly(3-hexylthiophene) in the solvent, wherein the poly(3-hexylthiophene) has a weight average molecular weight of at least 15 kiloDaltons and a regioregularity of at least 92%;
exposing the at least partially solvated poly(3-hexylthiophene) and solvent to ultrasonic energy for a duration effective to form a plurality of ordered assemblies of the poly(3-hexylthiophene) in the solvent; and
forming a solid film of the poly(3-hexylthiophene), wherein the solid film comprises the plurality of ordered assemblies of the poly(3-hexylthiophene), wherein the solid film comprises a carrier mobility of at least one order of magnitude greater than a solid film of poly(3-hexylthiophene) formed without the exposing.
15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising forming an electronic device from the solid film of the polymer.
16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of ordered assemblies are at least nanocrystalline in size.
17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the solvent is chloroform, thiophene, chlorobenzene, dichlorobenzene, trichlorobenzene, or toluene.
18. A poly(3-hexylthiophene) film formed from the method of claim 14 .
19. An electronic device formed from the method of claim 15 .