title: High thermal stability solution-processable narrow-band gap molecular semiconductors.
abstract: A series of narrow-band gap conjugated molecules with specific fluorine substitution patterns has been synthesized in order to study the effect of fluorination on bulk thermal stability. As the number of fluorine substituents on the backbone increase, one finds more thermally robust bulk structures both under inert and ambient conditions as well as an increase in phase transition temperatures in the solid state. When integrated into field-effect transistor devices, the molecule with the highest degree of fluorination shows a hole mobility of 0.15 cm(2)/V·s and a device thermal stability of >300 °C. Generally, the enhancement in thermal robustness of bulk organization and device performance correlates with the level of C-H for C-F substitution. These findings are relevant for the design of molecular semiconductors that can be introduced into optoelectronic devices to be operated under a wide range of conditions.
authors.affiliation: Center for Polymers and Organic Solids and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and ‡Department of Physics, University of California , Santa Barbara, California 93106, United States.
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ben B Y
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Yanming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Cheng-Kang
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Mai
authors.forename: Alan J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Heeger
authors.forename: Guillermo C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Bazan
mesh_terms: D004355:Drug Stability; D004563:Electrochemistry; D005461:Fluorine / Q000737:chemistry; D055620:Optical Phenomena; D012666:Semiconductors; D012996:Solutions; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D012996:Solutions; D005461:Fluorine