Effect of Solution Shearing Method on Packing and Disorder of Organic Semiconductor Polymers

The solution shearing method has previously been used to tune the molecular packing and crystal thin film morphology of small molecular organic semiconductors (OSCs). Here, we study how the solution shearing method impacts the thin film morphology and causes structural rearrangements of two polymeric OSCs with interdigitated side chain packing, namely P2TDC17FT4 and PBTTT-C16. The conjugated backbone tilt angle and the thin film morphology of the P2TDC17FT4 polymer were changed by the solution shearing conditions, and an accompanying change in the charge carrier mobility was observed. For PBTTT-C16, the out-of-plane lamellar spacing was increased by solution shearing, due to increased disorder of side chains. The ability to induce structural rearrangement of polymers through solution shearing allows for an easy and alternative method to modify OSC charge transport properties.