The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) rely on mixed ionic and electronic transport within OMIECs, where structural and transport properties are tightly coupled. Chalcogenophene substitution is an effective strategy to tune intra- and intermolecular interactions in conjugated polymers. Here, we investigate the effect of heteroatom substitution in a DPP-based donor–acceptor polymer for OECTs. Replacing thiophene with selenophene enhances device performance by increasing the quinoidal character and π-electron delocalization, resulting in a notable improvement in μC*, primarily due to higher charge carrier mobility. In addition, the optimized materials exhibit low off-state current and a high on/off current ratio, making them promising candidates for unipolar inverter applications.