Solution Adsorption Formation of a pi-Conjugated Polymer/Graphene Composite for High-Performance Field-Effect Transistors

Semiconducting polymers with pi-conjugated electronic structures have potential application in the large-scale printable fabrication of high-performance electronic and optoelectronic devices. However, owing to their poor environmental stability and high-cost synthesis, polymer semiconductors possess limited device implementation. Here, an approach for constructing a pi-conjugated polymer/graphene composite material to circumvent these limitations is provided, and then this material is patterned into 1D arrays. Driven by the pi-pi interaction, several-layer polymers can be adsorbed onto the graphene planes. The low consumption of the high-cost semiconductor polymers and the mass production of graphene contribute to the low-cost fabrication of the pi-conjugated polymer/graphene composite materials. Based on the pi-conjugated system, a reduced pi-pi stacking distance between graphene and the polymer can be achieved, yielding enhanced charge-transport properties. Owing to the incorporation of graphene, the composite material shows improved thermal stability. More generally, it is believed that the construction of the pi-conjugated composite shows clear possibility of integrating organic molecules and 2D materials into microstructure arrays for property-by-design fabrication of functional devices with large area, low cost, and high efficiency.