Date of Award

Spring 5-2017

Degree Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Chemistry and Biochemistry

First Advisor

Song Guo

Advisor Department

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Abstract

Although organic electronic materials are flexible, cheap to fabricate, and molecularly tunable, their performance has generally been less efficient than that of their inorganic counterparts. Chemical doping has been attempted as a method to increase the efficiency of organic materials. During this process, an organic material, typically a conjugated polymer, is exposed to an oxidant/reductant, called a dopant. Electron transfer between host polymer and dopant molecules increases the charge carrier density in the doped host material, making it a more efficient conductor. The effects of doping using 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F4TCNQ) on low molecular weight poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (LMW P3HT) in varying ratios of a decane/toluene solvent was investigated. Increasing the fraction of decane, a nonpolar bad solvent that does not facilitate charge transfer, forces the P3HT to aggregate very quickly. A comparison is made between the UV-vis spectra of samples prepared with decane and those of samples prepared in pure toluene. By comparing the chemical doping behavior between aggregated and non-aggregated forms of P3HT, the influences of P3HT aggregation on their chemical doping kinetics are elucidated. The experimental results obtained support the hypothesis that P3HT must undergo its aggregation step before a doping product can be formed.

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