A critical role of amphiphilic polymers in organic-inorganic hybrid sol-gel derived gate dielectrics for flexible organic thin-film transistors

초록

The sol-gel method is a low-temperature, highly controllable and cost-effective method for producing homogeneous and high-quality ultrafine nanostructured thin films. Despite these advantages, sol-gel derived gate dielectrics have received little attention. Here, we synthesized a sol-gel derived organic-inorganic (O-I) hybrid gate dielectric (AGPTi) and demonstrated the stability and flexibility of organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) made with it. The AGPTi film was simply fabricated from three conventional precursors, namely (3-glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane (GPTMS), propyltrimethoxysilane (PTMS), and titanium(iv) isopropoxide (TTiP), and a newly synthesized alkoxysilane-functionalized amphiphilic polymer (AFAP) under mild conditions (120 degrees C for 60 min). This research revealed several important benefits of including such an amphiphilic polymer in sol-gel derived O-I hybrid gate dielectrics: a considerable enhancement of sol stability; an ability to achieve a high-quality thin film with elaborate structures of small nanoclusters; and a dramatic improvement of adhesion, leakage current density of gate dielectrics, electrical stability and flexibility of devices. We expect this study to open up new applications for O-I hybrid materials in flexible electronics.

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