Directed self-assembly of organic semiconductors via confined evaporative capillary flows for use in organic field-effect transistors

• We fabricated well-defined TIPS-PEN semiconductor crystal arrays via a confined evaporative capillary flow method.
• Ribbon-shaped TIPS-PEN crystals with highly preferred crystal orientation along the (l 0 0) axis were developed.
• TIPS-PEN field-effect transistors (FETs) exhibited a good hole mobility of 0.72 cm2/Vs.

We fabricated well-defined 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene (TIPS-PEN) crystal arrays for use in electronic applications via a simple but effective method, the confined evaporative capillary flow (CEC) method. This has been accomplished by systematically controlling the contact line pinning at the edge of glass stylus and the outward hydrodynamic flow within the drying droplet with various processing solvents and surface properties of the substrate during solidification. We found that after CEC coating of TIPS-PEN solution dissolved into toluene onto SiO2 surface, ribbon-shaped TIPS-PEN crystals were well developed with a width of 20–100 μm and length of 300 μm – 2 mm, which is presumably owing to optimized capillary evaporation. Specifically, TIPS-PEN crystals present highly preferred crystal orientation along the (l 0 0) axis, which can lead to efficient charge transport in a lateral direction. Thus, TIPS-PEN field-effect transistors (FETs) exhibited a good hole mobility of 0.72 cm2/Vs.

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