Contactless Droplet Manipulation for Highly Aligned Organic Semiconductors

创新制造技术的引入正在稳步改变我们在英国和全球的生活方式。具体而言，印刷材料和设备（包括柔性印刷电子产品）的可能性预示着一个新时代，它将提供无与伦比的解决方案来应对许多全球经济和社会挑战，例如个性化医疗保健，能源收集，信息处理和可持续性。有机半导体是一类重量轻且灵活的有机分子，具有打印电子设备的前所未有的潜力，例如用于个性化健康监测的可穿戴传感器。这些分子的薄膜的电子性能关键取决于它们在沉积图案中的分子排列程度。尽管如此，当前的印刷技术（例如，喷墨印刷）在使OSC膜图案化时能够实际实现的对准水平上受到限制，从而最终阻碍了有机半导体在设备中的集成。在本项目中，我们提出开发一种新型的非接触印刷技术，该技术能够改善薄聚合物膜中的分子对准，从而提高印刷的有机半导体膜的电子性能。我们的方法将基于含有溶解的有机半导体分子的微小液滴的非接触式运输。当这些液滴移动时，它们可以在基底上以优先方向存款材料，从而增强分子排列和自组装过程。我们设想，我们印刷有机半导体的新方法不仅将产生对分子沉积、排列和自组装现象的基本理解，而且它还将使我们能够改善柔性印刷电子器件的性能，以开发基于有机半导体的柔性电子器件。

The introduction of innovative manufacturing techniques is steadily revolutionising the way we live in the UK and globally. Specifically, the possibility of printing materials and devices (including flexible printed electronics) herald a new era with unparalleled solutions to tackle many global economic and societal challenges, such as personalised healthcare, energy harvesting, information processing and sustainability. Organic semiconductors are a class of lightweight and flexible organic molecules with unprecedented potential for printing electronic devices, such as wearable sensors for personalised health monitoring. The electronic performance of thin films of these molecules critically depends on the degree of their molecular alignment in the deposited patterns. Nonetheless, current printing techniques (e.g., inkjet printing) are limited in the level of alignment that can be realistically achieved while patterning OSC films, thus ultimately hindering the integration of organic semiconductors in devices.In this project, we propose to develop a novel non-contact printing technique capable of improving molecular alignment in thin polymer films and, thus, of boosting the electronic performance of printed organic semiconducting films. Our approach will be based on the contactless transport of tiny droplets containing dissolved organic semiconductor molecules. While moving, these droplets can deposit material on a substrate with a preferential direction, thus enhancing processes of molecular alignment and self-assembly.We envisage that our novel approach to printing organic semiconductors will not only generate fundamental understanding about phenomena of molecular deposition, alignment and self-assembly, but it will also enable us to improve the performance of flexible printed electronics for the development of flexible electronic devices based on organic semiconductors.