Tough, Semiconducting Polyethylene-poly(3-hexylthiophene) Diblock Copolymers

Abstract Semiconducting diblock copolymers of polyethylene (PE) and regioregular poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) are demonstrated to exhibit a rich phase behaviour, judicious use of which permitted us to fabricate field‐effect transistors that show saturated charge carrier mobilities, μ FET , as high as 2 × 10 –2 cm 2 V –1 s –1 and ON‐OFF ratios, I on / I off ∼ 10 5 at contents of the insulating PE moiety as high as 90 wt %. In addition, the diblock copolymers display outstanding flexibility and toughness with elongations at break exceeding 600 % and true tensile strengths around 70 MPa, opening the path towards robust and truly flexible electronic components.