Junfu Tian, Wentao Shan, Rachael Found, Paola Mantegazza, Francesco Leoni, Andreas W Erhardt, Yuyun Yao, Matus Stredansky, Arianna Magni, Adam Marks, Elena Chulanova, Zeinab Hamid, Yueying Huang, Wanpeng Lu, Xian'e Li, Baopu Zhang, Qingpei Wan, Christina Kousseff, Matilde Concilio, Ruth Theresia Arwani, Caroline A Ross, Sahika Inal, Giovanni Costantini, Iain McCulloch
Conjugated rod-coil block copolymers provide a promising route to decouple the optimisation of ionic and electronic transport in organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). Poly(3-alkoxythiophene) (P3AOT)-based rod-coil block copolymers with precisely tuned polyethylene glycol (PEG), and poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) coil blocks are synthesised through a modular approach combining Kumada coupling transfer polymerisation (KCTP) and Knoevenagel condensation. An evaluation of the thin film morphology and subsequent OECT performance of a range of rod-coil copolymers reveals that device performance can be enhanced compared to the corresponding homopolymer, establishing rod-coil block copolymers as a versatile material platform and providing fundamental insight for the use of block copolymer in OECTs.