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Strategic design and synthesis of π-conjugated polymers suitable as intrinsically stretchable semiconducting materials

Polymer Journal volume 53, pages 1061–1071 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Main-chain engineering and side-chain engineering approaches used to design and synthesize semiconducting polymers with intrinsic ductility and/or stretchability are introduced in this review, and recent progress in this area is discussed. Main-chain engineering includes (a) conjugation-break spacer (CBS), (b) ternary copolymer, and (c) block copolymer approaches, and side-chain engineering includes (d) Y-shaped side chain, (e) graft copolymer, and (f) cross-linking approaches. A summary of the results obtained by approaches (a)–(f) demonstrates that approaches (a) and (d) tend to provide high charge mobilities (>1 cm2V−1s−1) even at 100% tensile strain. On the other hand, the mechanical properties of films prepared by these methods remain poor, with a high elastic modulus in the range of >0.1 GPa, which causes poor film ductility and stretchability. In contrast, ductile and/or elastic semiconducting materials with extremely low elastic moduli of <0.01 GPa are obtained by approaches (c) and (f), which are used to prepare thermoplastic and cross-linked elastomeric materials, respectively. For semiconducting polymers to be promising candidates in applications such as wearable electronics, electronic skins, and bioelectronics, the trade-off relationship between the electronic and mechanical performance of semiconducting polymers must be prevented by further developing and combining versatile and efficient approaches.

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Acknowledgements

TH thanks the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), KAKENHI (No. 26620172, 16H06049, 20J20461) and Tokuyama Science Foundation for the financial supports.

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  1. Department of Organic Materials Science, Graduate School of Organic Materials Science, Yamagata University, Yonezawa, Yamagata, Japan

    Tomoya Higashihara

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Correspondence to Tomoya Higashihara.

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Higashihara, T. Strategic design and synthesis of π-conjugated polymers suitable as intrinsically stretchable semiconducting materials. Polym J 53, 1061–1071 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41428-021-00510-1

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