title: Effect of Solvent on Surface Ordering of Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Thin Films.
abstract: Enhancement of charge transport in organic polymer semiconductors is a crucial step in developing optimized devices. A variety of sample preparation conditions, such as film fabrication method, solvent species, and annealing, were found to influence the hole mobility of organic polymers. Despite the fact that many factors can influence their performance, it is believed that polymer surface ordering plays a key role in determining organic polymer function. Here, sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy was used to nondestructively map the surface/interfacial ordering of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) films prepared using different solvents; we believe that solvent interactions determine the degree of surface/interfacial ordering. Both X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to supplement SFG to systematically study bulk crystallinity and surface morphology. We conclude that SFG is a powerful tool to elucidate the surface/interfacial structural information on polymer semiconducting films. We demonstrate that the solvent composition used to prepare P3HT thin films influences the resulting film surface morphology, surface/interfacial ordering, and bulk crystallinity.
authors: †Department of Chemistry and ‡Department of Biophysics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1055, United States.
authors: Minyu
authors: M
authors: Xiao
authors: †Department of Chemistry and ‡Department of Biophysics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1055, United States.
authors: Xiaoxian
authors: X
authors: Zhang
authors: †Department of Chemistry and ‡Department of Biophysics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1055, United States.
authors: Zachary J
authors: ZJ
authors: Bryan
authors: †Department of Chemistry and ‡Department of Biophysics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1055, United States.
authors: Joshua
authors: J
authors: Jasensky
authors: †Department of Chemistry and ‡Department of Biophysics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1055, United States.
authors: Anne J
authors: AJ
authors: McNeil
authors: †Department of Chemistry and ‡Department of Biophysics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1055, United States.
authors: Zhan
authors: Z
authors: Chen
mesh_terms: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry*; D013876:Thiophenes / Q000737:chemistry*; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D012997:Solvents; D013876:Thiophenes; C507295:poly(3-hexylthiophene)