@article{370d0eed19f24387a7968c7617bb3c73,
title = "The Role of Tie Chains on the Mechano-Electrical Properties of Semiconducting Polymer Films",
abstract = "The mechano-electrical properties of poly(3-hexylthiophene) thin films are investigated as a function of their tie-chain content. Tie chains play an indispensable role in enabling strain-induced structural alignment and charge-transport enhancement in the strain direction. In the absence of sufficient tie chains, the external mechanical force cannot induce any significant polymer backbone alignment locally or crystallite reorientation at the mesoscale. These samples instead undergo brittle fracture on deformation, with cracks forming normal to the direction of strain; charge transport in this direction is hindered as a consequence. This mechanistic insight on strain alignment points to the promise of leveraging tie-chain fraction as a practical tuning knob for effecting the mechano-electrical properties in conjugated polymer systems.",
keywords = "chain alignment, charge transport, conjugated polymers, field-effect transistors, organic electronics",
author = "Kaichen Gu and Onorato, {Jonathan W.} and Luscombe, {Christine K.} and Loo, {Yueh Lin}",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by ExxonMobil through its membership in the Princeton E‐filliates Partnership of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. K.G. acknowledges the Mr. and Mrs. Yan Huo *94*95 Graduate Fellowship, administered by Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS). Y.‐L.L. acknowledges partial funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through grant CMMI‐1824674. The syntheses of P3HT samples were in part supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (BES), under Award DE‐SC0020046 (reagent purchase) and in part by the State of Washington through the University of Washington Clean Energy Institute and via funding from the Washington Research Foundation (partial financial support for J.W.O.). Portion of this work was conducted at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), which is supported by NSF under award DMR‐1332208. The authors would like to thank Dr. Mark M. Disko and Dr. August W. Bosse for useful discussions. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim",
year = "2020",
month = apr,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1002/aelm.201901070",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "6",
journal = "Advanced Electronic Materials",
issn = "2199-160X",
publisher = "Wiley-VCH Verlag",
number = "4",
}