Date of Award
5-16-2024
Publication Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Keywords
Green Electronics;Organic Electronics;Organic Field-Effect Transistors;Polymer Synthesis;Semiconducting Polymers;Side Chain Engineering
Supervisor
Simon Rondeau-Gagne
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
In this new age of integrated technologies, electronic devices must be capable of more than just efficient performance. Next generation electronics need to meet new demands such as conformability and interaction with new environments such as the human body. Organic electronics present a promising avenue to next generation functional technologies due to their highly tunable nature. Semiconducting polymers (SPs) are vital to the advancement of organic electronics research due to their excellent mechanical and optoelectronic properties. Through rational chemical design, these materials can be imparted with a wide variety of new functionalities, including self-healing, intrinsic stretchability, and biocompatibility. One significant advantage of SPs over traditional silicon-based electronics is their solution processability, enabling new device fabrication techniques such as spin-coating and inkjet printing. While solution processing offers many new avenues for electronics production, it also raises an important ecological concern. Due to strong π-π interactions, solubility of SPs is often limited to toxic, halogenated solvents that can be extremely harmful to humans and the environment. Consequently, implementation of sustainable methods for large-scale processing of these materials needs to be proactively considered. In this work, we report the synthesis and characterization of side chain engineered semiconducting polymers toward sustainable and high-performance organic electronics. Chapter 1 presents a review of recent literature, highlighting important progress toward eco-friendly semiconducting polymers and solvent-resistant organic electronics. In Chapter 2, we explore side chain engineering of isoindigo-based polymers with carbohydrate moieties toward improved processability in alcohol-based solvents. Further probing the influence of carbohydrate side chains on solubility, Chapter 3 examines triggered solvent-resistance in SPs toward multilayer solution-processed device applications. Building on the structure-property relationships discovered through these works, Chapter 4 investigates air stability and significantly improved electronic performance in a new series of carbohydrate-bearing SPs. In Chapter 5, we use synthetic strategies developed in previous chapters to produce SPs with eco-friendly processability and post-functionalization capabilities through terminal alcohol side chains. Chapter 6 presents a summary of our works and insight into future research directions.
Recommended Citation
Mooney, Madison, "Sustainability by Design: Carbohydrate Side Chain Engineering for Greener Semiconducting Polymers in Organic Electronics" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 9441.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/9441