Understanding How Semiconducting Nanonetwork Can Form Backbone of Flexible and Transparent Electronics

A new kind of “sweet spot” was recently discovered by researchers for organic electronics when they created a new kind of 2D semiconducting polymer-mixed nanonetwork material that is capable of attaining at par charge mobility, 100 percent optical transparency, and high flexibility simultaneously. It is a unique blend of awesome properties that were yet being searched for in semiconducting materials. The research team claims that it is first of its kind bendable and transparent semiconducting material that was defined through fabrication of field-effect transistors with the help of integrated LEDs. The research team was led by a professor from Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology. Kwanghee Lee.

According to Lee, “So far, there has been no semiconducting material that simultaneously achieves excellent optical transparency, high charge-carrier mobility, and real flexibility. Metal oxides, such as ZnO and IGZO, have excellent transparency and high mobility, but they are brittle and show poor mobility if not treated with high-temperature (>200 °C) processes, which are not desirable for fabrication on flexible substrates. General semiconducting polymers are flexible, but show poor mobility without complex processes and are not very transparent because of their high optical absorption coefficient.”

This new polymer blend has approx. 15 percent semiconducting polymer (DPP2T) that is integrated in an inert polystyrene matrix. These are two different kind of polymers that do not blend with each other properly, the DPP2T in fact formulates a web-type of nanonetwork via the inert matrix leading to formation of a highly uniform and constantly connected charge pathway that can transport charge rapidly Transparency was yet the biggest challenge that was far from being achieved in the semiconducting materials. This one achieves this with utmost perfection.