Issue 7, 2022

Strain-insensitive naphthalene-diimide-based conjugated polymers through sequential regularity control

Abstract

Diversified structure design is applied to donor–acceptor (D–A)-type conjugated polymers (CPs) to improve their mobility–stretchability properties. Most methods that are capable of improving mechanical durability without sacrificing charge transport performance are applicable mainly to p-type CPs and are thus not amenable to or reported for n-type CPs with limited types of backbones. In this work, we are interested in applying sequential regularity control on the n-type CP naphthalene-diimide-bithiophene (PNDI2T) to achieve intrinsic stretchability. Sequentially alternating (Alt-PNDI2T) and random (Ran-PNDI2T) CPs were synthesized accordingly through Stille coupling polycondensation. The morphologies of Alt/Ran-PNDI2Ts were investigated by using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD), and their mobility–stretchability properties were evaluated by using a transfer/stretch technique. We found that, by inserting sequential irregularity along the polymer backbone, Ran-PNDI2T showed a near-amorphous structure and comparable charge transport performance compared to that of Alt-PNDI2T. Moreover, Ran-PNDI2T exhibited strain-insensitive mobility–stretchability properties, relating to the successfully percolation network of tie-chains. Our results indicate that the sequential regularity control of D–A-type CPs is a promising approach to achieve intrinsically stretchable CPs with high mobilities.

Graphical abstract: Strain-insensitive naphthalene-diimide-based conjugated polymers through sequential regularity control

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
17 Nov 2021
Accepted
05 Jan 2022
First published
05 Jan 2022

Mater. Chem. Front., 2022,6, 891-900

Strain-insensitive naphthalene-diimide-based conjugated polymers through sequential regularity control

Y. Lin, K. Terayama, K. Yoshida, P. Yu, P. Chueh, C. Chueh, T. Higashihara and W. Chen, Mater. Chem. Front., 2022, 6, 891 DOI: 10.1039/D1QM01521D

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