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。具体地说，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的到来，它拥有无与伦比的解决方案，以应对许多全球经济和社会挑战，如个性化医疗保健、能源采集、信息处理和可持续发展。有机半导体是一类轻巧灵活的有机分子，在打印电子设备方面具有前所未有的潜力，例如用于个性化健康监测的可穿戴传感器。这些分子薄膜的电子性能在很大程度上取决于它们在沉积图案中的分子排列程度。然而，目前的打印技术(例如，喷墨打印)在对有机半导体薄膜进行图案化时实际实现的对准水平是有限的，从而最终阻碍了有机半导体在器件中的集成。在本项目中，我们提议开发一种新的非接触打印技术，能够改善聚合物薄膜中的分子对准，从而提高打印的有机半导体薄膜的电子性能。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传输。在移动时，这些液滴可以沿优先方向在衬底上沉积材料，从而增强分子的排列和自组装过程。我们预计，我们新的印刷有机半导体的方法不仅将使我们对分子沉积、排列和自组装现象有基本的了解，而且还将使我们能够提高柔性印刷电子学的性能，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.