Direct Observations of the Structural Properties of Semiconducting Polymer: Fullerene Blends under Tensile Stretching

Mouaad Yassine Aliouat (1, 2) , Dmitriy Ksenzov (3) , Stéphanie Escoubas (1, 2) , Jörg Ackermann (4, 2) , Dominique Thiaudière (5) , Cristian Mocuta (5) , Mohamed Cherif Benoudia (6) , David Duche (1, 2) , Olivier Thomas (1, 2) , Souren Grigorian (7)

1 IM2NP - Institut des Matériaux, de Microélectronique et des Nanosciences de Provence
2 AMU - Aix Marseille Université
3 University of Siegen
4 CINaM - Centre Interdisciplinaire de Nanoscience de Marseille
5 SSOLEIL - Synchrotron SOLEIL
6 L3M
7 University of Siegen

We describe the impact of tensile strains on the structural properties of thin films composed of PffBT4T-2OD π-conjugated polymer and PC 71 BM fullerenes coated on a stretchable substrate, based on a novel approach using in situ studies of flexible organic thin films. In situ grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) measurements were carried out to probe the ordering of polymers and to measure the strain of the polymer chains under uniaxial tensile tests. A maximum 10% tensile stretching was applied (i.e., beyond the relaxation threshold). Interestingly we found different behaviors upon stretching the polymer: fullerene blends with the modified polymer; fullerene blends with the 1,8-Diiodooctane (DIO) additive. Overall, the strain in the system was almost twice as low in the presence of additive. The inclusion of additive was found to help in stabilizing the system and, in particular, the π-π packing of the donor polymer chains.

Mots clés: conjugated polymer and blends; in situ GIXD; additive; structure; strain

Domaines: Chimie-Physique [physics.chem-ph]; Matériaux; Chimie organique

Mouaad Yassine Aliouat, Dmitriy Ksenzov, Stéphanie Escoubas, Jörg Ackermann, Dominique Thiaudière, et al.. Direct Observations of the Structural Properties of Semiconducting Polymer: Fullerene Blends under Tensile Stretching. Materials, 2020, 13 (14), pp.3092. ⟨10.3390/ma13143092⟩. ⟨hal-02929463⟩