Herein, we describe the effect of the cooling-off condition of a solution-processed 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)-pentacene (TIPS-pentacene) film on its molecular distribution and the resultant electrical properties. Since the solvent in a TIPS-pentacene droplet gradually evaporates from the rim to the center exhibiting a radial form of solute, for a quenched case, domains of the TIPS-pentacene film are aboriginally spread showing original features of radial shape due to suppressed molecular rearrangement during the momentary cooling period. For the slowly cooled case, however, TIPS-pentacene molecules are randomly rearranged during the long cooling period. As a result, in the lopsided electrodes structure proposed in this work, the charge transport generates more effectively under the case for radial distribution induced by the quenching technique. It was found that the molecular redistribution during the cooling-period plays an important role on the magnitude of the mobility in a solution-processed organic transistor. This work provides at least a scientific basis between the molecular distribution and electrical properties in solution-processed organic devices.
We analysed interfacial traps in organic thin-film transistors (TFTs) in which pentacene and 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)-pentacene (TIPS-pentacene) organic semiconductors were deposited by means of vacuum-thermal evaporation and drop-coating methods, respectively. The thermally-deposited pentacene film consists of dentritic grains with the average grain size of around 1 ?m, while plate-like crystals over a few hundred microns are observed in the solution-processed TIPS-pentacene film. From the transfer characteristics of both TFTs, lower subthreshold slope of 1.02 V/decade was obtained in the TIPS-pentacene TFT, compared to that (2.63 V/decade) of the pentacene transistor. The interfacial trap density values calculated from the subthreshold slope are about 3.4×1012/cm2 and 9.4×1012/cm2 for the TIPS-pentacene and pentacene TFTs, respectively. Herein, lower subthreshold slope and less interfacial traps in TIPS-pentacene TFTs are attributed to less domain boundaries in the solution-processed TIPS-pentacene film.