Novel conjugated polymers based on dithieno[3,2-b:6,7-b]carbazole for solution processed thin-film transistors.

Two conjugated polymers (CPs) P-tCzC12 and P-tCzC16 comprising alternating dithieno[3,2-b:6,7-b]carbazole and 4,4'-dihexadecyl-2,2'-bithiophene units have been designed and synthesized. Upon thermal annealing, they can form ordered thin films in which the polymer backbones dominantly adopted an edge-on orientation respective to the substrate with a lamellar spacing of ≈24 Å and a π-stacking distance of ≈3.7 Å. Organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) were fabricated by solution casting. A hole mobility of 0.39 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) has been demonstrated with P-tCzC16. This value is the highest among the CPs containing heteroacenes larger than 4 rings.