Paternò, GM;
Robbiano, V;
Fraser, KJ;
Frost, C;
García Sakai, V;
Cacialli, F;
(2017)
Neutron Radiation Tolerance of Two Benchmark Thiophene-Based Conjugated Polymers: the Importance of Crystallinity for Organic Avionics.
Scientific Reports
, 7
, Article 41013. 10.1038/srep41013.
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Abstract
Aviation and space applications can benefit significantly from lightweight organic electronics, now spanning from displays to logics, because of the vital importance of minimising payload (size and mass). It is thus crucial to assess the damage caused to such materials by cosmic rays and neutrons, which pose a variety of hazards through atomic displacements following neutron-nucleus collisions. Here we report the first study of the neutron radiation tolerance of two poly(thiophene)s-based organic semiconductors: poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl), P3HT, and the liquid-crystalline poly(2,5-bis (3-tetradecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene), PBTTT. We combine spectroscopic investigations with characterisation of intrinsic charge mobility to show that PBTTT exhibits significantly higher tolerance than P3HT. We explain this in terms of a superior chemical, structural and conformational stability of PBTTT, which can be ascribed to its higher crystallinity, in turn induced by a combination of molecular design features. Our approach can be used to develop design strategies for better neutron radiation-tolerant materials, thus paving the way for organic semiconductors to enter avionics and space applications.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Neutron Radiation Tolerance of Two Benchmark Thiophene-Based Conjugated Polymers: the Importance of Crystallinity for Organic Avionics |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/srep41013 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep41013 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1538620 |
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