Invited Talk - Multipotent Precursors as Immobilization Strategy for Conjugated Polymers with Complementary Electronic Properties, by Prof. Dr. Marco Carlotti

Abstract: Indubitably, the development of semiconductors technologies that characterized last century was the turning point that allowed the rise of modern-day electronics and the information revolution we are living. However, despite their success in applications such as OLEDs and flexible electronics, organic semiconductors did not live up to the expectations researchers had 50 years ago. One unrivaled advantage of silicon-based technology over these latter, lies in the possibility of obtaining regions defined by complementary electronic and transport properties - n and p - on a single substrate, which are at the base of integrated circuits and complementary logic configurations (CMOS). This approach cannot be easily replicated with organic semiconductors due to their intrinsically different nature, which adds up to other shortcomings such as the lower charge mobility and the often non-efficient charge injection from metallic materials. To avoid these limitations and investigate new possibilities, we are developing a novel approach based on solution-processable polymeric precursors that can be employed for the immobilization of high- molecular conjugated polymers characterized by different structures. In particular, during this seminar, I will introduce this novel class of polymeric precursors which can undergo two different transformations to yield two different conjugated polymers, characterized by complementary electronic properties, from the same starting material. Notably, such transformations are achieved by different chemical treatments, which can also be applied orthogonally and on the solid state, thus generating different phases on a single substrate. We characterized the systems proposed and show several examples of how this methodology can be applied for the fabrication of OFETs, redox polymers, and multicolored electrochromic displays.