Side-chain engineering as a powerful tool to tune the properties of polymeric field-effect transistors

Abstract

During the past ten years, the performance of polymeric field-effect transistors has been largely improved, not only in mobility but also in durability. Among the factors contributed to such improvements, side-chain engineering plays an important role. Various techniques, such as branch point adjustment, hydrogen-bonding introduction and the incorporation of other functional groups in the side-chain were developed, which greatly altered the crystallinity, alignment and morphology of the conjugated polymers hence their charge transport behavior. In this review, the side-chain engineering strategies that have been employed in polymeric field-effect transistors are summarized and discussed in detail, which we hope could provide an insight into further development in this area.

Keywords:

• Polymeric field-effect transistors
• side-chain engineering
• conjugated polymers

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC 22075105 and 51573204) and the start-up funding from Jianghan University.