Uniaxial macroscopic alignment of conjugated polymer systems by directional crystallization during blade coating

Abstract

We have developed a one step method for the deposition of uniaxially aligned conjugated polymer layers by directional epitaxial crystallization directly from solution. Oriented, square centimeter sized samples of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) deposited from a chlorobenzene (CB) solution containing the additional crystallizable solvent 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene (TCB) are obtained by blade coating. Moreover, we show that the developed technique is not restricted to this specific material combination, but is instead applicable to a range of conjugated polymers and crystallizable solvents. Finally, we demonstrate the potential of this technique by realizing an organic photovoltaic device that exhibits a polarization dependent photoresponse.