Molecular Engineering of Semiconducting Polymers for Emerging Organic Electronics

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Semiconducting Polymers (SPs) are a fascinating class of organic materials that have led to significant discoveries in recent decades. In addition to possessing excellent charge transport properties, SPs are synthetically versatile, offering a myriad of possibilities to fine-tune their optoelectronic, thermomechanical, and solid-state properties. Despite these unique features, the application of semiconducting polymers for the fabrication of next-generation electronics has been limited, largely due to their semicrystalline nature that limits molecular stretchability and solubility in common organic solvents. Therefore, common high-performance SPs generally possess high Young's modulus and low solubility in common organic solvents. Over the last funding cycle, our group has utilized innovative approaches to prepare and design new advanced semiconducting polymers, and has moved toward the establishment of new structure-property relationships in organic electronics. Our progress and the important findings revealed so far, however, are only the tip of the iceberg. The long-term objective of this research program is to develop a materials design "toolbox" for advanced semiconducting polymers with innovative properties, such as stretchability, self-healing and green processability, allowing for these new materials to become applicable for the fabrication of stretchable (bio)electronics. These tools will also provide new properties and functions for going beyond traditional organic electronics. Toward this goal, three main themes will be investigated. The first part of this research program will focus on the preparation of self-healing semiconducting covalent adaptable networks, the second part will be dedicated to the design and preparation of degradable and greener SPs, and the final part will develop a novel strategy to access high-performance SPs through the formation of polydiacetylenes. The thermomechanical properties, solubility, and processing methods of high-performance SPs are often under-explored in literature, making the establishment of a rational design strategy that can improve/enable these properties even more crucial. Throughout this research program, new materials will be evaluated through a myriad of multimodal characterization techniques to fully unravel and access new structure-property relationships in advanced semiconductors. Finally, the new materials and designs developed through this research program will be applied to electronic devices through the fabrication of organic field-effect transistors, allowing for direct connecting of the molecular design and materials properties with performance in organic electronics. With the rise of organic electronics, the achievement of the timely and important objectives of this research program not only transform current design paradigms for SPs and organic electronics but will also provide cutting-edge training for the next generation of highly skilled Canadian scientists.