POS5-1633
Beyond Crystalline Order: Structural-Electronic Homogeneity of Transport Pathways as an Efficient Design Framework for Polymer Semiconductor Electronics
Topic
S5. Polymers for Electronics and Photonics
When and Where
Sep 29, 2026
08:30 - 09:30
Room 301 (Grand Ballroom)
Session Chairs
Hae Jung SON
Boseok KANG
Presenter(s)
Taehoon Hwang (Hanyang University)
Co-Author(s)
Abstract
Charge transport in polymer semiconductors is widely assumed to scale with crystallinity, yet this paradigm cannot account for the high mobilities routinely reported in structurally disordered films. Here we show that macroscopic mobility is instead dictated by the continuity of the transport pathway threading through the film, not by how much of it is crystalline. Quenching diketopyrrolopyrrole–dithienothiophene copolymer films from above their melting point suppressed recrystallization, producing a homogeneous, largely disordered architecture whose field-effect mobility matched or exceeded that of conventionally annealed, highly crystalline films, accompanied by lower channel resistance, fewer traps, and markedly improved bias-stress recovery. The same trend held for poly(2,5-bis(3-tetradecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene), showing the effect is not polymer-specific. Microstructure-constrained resistor-network simulations confirmed that removing high-resistance interfacial bottlenecks, rather than growing larger crystals, opens continuous current pathways. These results reframe crystallinity as necessary but not sufficient, identifying transport-pathway uniformity as the principle that determines whether it translates into device performance.
