Growth and carrier-transport performance of a poly(3-hexylthiophene)/1,2,3,4-bis(p-methylbenzylidene) sorbitol hybrid shish-kebab nanostructure

Abstract

Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)/1,2,3,4-bis(p-methylbenzylidene) sorbitol (MDBS) hybrid shish-kebab nanostructures were prepared by spin-coating their hot o-dichlorobenzene (ODCB) solutions. The P3HT nanofibrils grow perpendicularly to the MDBS nanowire surface with uniform width and height. The lengths of these P3HT nanofibrils are controlled by solvent evaporation rate and P3HT solubility in ODCB at different temperatures during spin-coating. The P3HT nanofibril length also can be tailored through variations in spin-coating temperatures, spin-coating rates, P3HT concentrations, and solvent quality or substrates. The method is shown to be general to several other poly(3-alkylthiophene)s (P3ATs) and sorbitol derivatives. The mobility of the P3HT/MDBS thin-film organic field-effect transistor (OFET) with the hybrid shish-kebab morphology is 3.80 × 10⁻² cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, which is one order of magnitude higher than the mobility (2.91 × 10⁻³ cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹) of the OFET using only P3HT. In this work, we provide a simple and robust route to form hybrid shish-kebab nanostructures of organic conjugated polymers. Our findings suggest that this nanostructure has the benefit of improving the carrier transport of organic semiconductor materials.