Microstructural control over soluble pentacene deposited by capillary pen printing for organic electronics

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2013 Aug 28;5(16):7838-44. doi: 10.1021/am401698c. Epub 2013 Aug 15.

Abstract

Research into printing techniques has received special attention for the commercialization of cost-efficient organic electronics. Here, we have developed a capillary pen printing technique to realize a large-area pattern array of organic transistors and systematically investigated self-organization behavior of printed soluble organic semiconductor ink. The capillary pen-printed deposits of organic semiconductor, 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene (TIPS_PEN), was well-optimized in terms of morphological and microstructural properties by using ink with mixed solvents of chlorobenzene (CB) and 1,2-dichlorobenzene (DCB). Especially, a 1:1 solvent ratio results in the best transistor performances. This result is attributed to the unique evaporation characteristics of the TIPS_PEN deposits where fast evaporation of CB induces a morphological evolution at the initial printed position, and the remaining DCB with slow evaporation rate offers a favorable crystal evolution at the pinned position. Finally, a large-area transistor array was facilely fabricated by drawing organic electrodes and active layers with a versatile capillary pen. Our approach provides an efficient printing technique for fabricating large-area arrays of organic electronics and further suggests a methodology to enhance their performances by microstructural control of the printed organic semiconducting deposits.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Capillaries / chemistry
  • Chemistry, Organic*
  • Chlorobenzenes / chemistry
  • Electronics*
  • Naphthacenes / chemistry*
  • Semiconductors*
  • Transistors, Electronic

Substances

  • Chlorobenzenes
  • Naphthacenes
  • 2-dichlorobenzene
  • pentacene