A series of alternating and random donor (D)–acceptor (A) copolymers based on naphthalene diimide (NDI) as the acceptor and oligo(p-phenylenevinylene) (OPV) or benzobisoxazole (BBO) as the strong and weak donor, respectively, were designed and synthesized by Suzuki coupling and Horner–Wadsworth–Emmons polymerization. The effect of the varying donor strength of OPV and BBO on the photophysical, electrochemical, and semiconducting properties of the polymers was investigated. Absorption and emission spectra recorded for dilute chloroform solution and thin film showed increased intramolecular charge transfer for NDI-alt-OPV polymer compared to NDI-alt-BBO polymer. Cyclic voltammetry studies along with DFT (density functional theory) studies at the B3LYP/6-31g* level gave insight into the energy level (HOMO/LUMO) and molecular orientation of donor and acceptor along the polymer backbone. NDI-alt-OPV polymer exhibited rigid coplanar structure with extended π-conjugation which induced backbone planarity and crystallinity to the polymer. The inherent poor solubility of the NDI-alt-BBO prevented further device characterization of this polymer. Random copolymer having maximum 30% incorporation of BBO comonomer in NDI-r-OPV/BBO was found to be soluble for further characterization. Compared to NDI-alt-OPV, lowering of both energy levels LUMO (∼0.2 eV) and HOMO (∼0.5 eV) was observed for both NDI-alt-BBO and the NDI-r-OPV/BBO. Bottom gate–top contact organic field effect transistors (OFETs) of NDI-alt-OPV exhibited balanced ambipolar charge transport with average electron and hole mobility of 3.09 × 10–3 cm2 V–1 s–1 and 2.1 × 10–3 cm2 V–1 s–1, respectively, whereas the random copolymer incorporating both OPV and BBO units NDI-r-OPV/BBO showed dominant n-type charge transport with moderate 4 × 10–4 cm2 V–1 s–1 average electron mobility. The present work thus highlights the structure–property relationship and the electronic tunability required in this class of NDI-based polymers to produce ambipolar transistors.

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) - India