Morphology Development in Solution-Processed Functional Organic Blend Films: An In Situ Viewpoint

Solution-processed organic films are a facile route to high-speed, low cost, large-area deposition of electrically functional components (transistors, solar cells, emitters, etc.) that can enable a diversity of emerging technologies, from Industry 4.0, to the Internet of things, to point-of-use heath care and elder care. The extreme sensitivity of the functional performance of organic films to structure and the general nonequilibrium nature of solution drying result in extreme processing performance correlations. In this Review, we highlight insights into the fundamentals of solution based film deposition afforded by recent state-of-the-art in situ measurements of functional film drying. Emphasis is placed on multimodal studies that combine surface sensitive X-ray scattering (GIWAXS or GISAXS) with optical characterization to clearly define the evolution of solute structure (aggregation, crystallinity, and morphology) with film thickness.