In situ GIWAXS investigation of thin polymer films under uniaxial mechanical strain

We will study the high-performance organic semiconductor PDVT-8 polymer on a stretchable substrate (PDMS), by GI-WAXS. The polymer rivals its inorganic counterparts in terms of carrier mobilities and allows stretching, which is not possible for brittle inorganic semiconductors. We aim at: (a) Finding optimal processing conditions that provide good electrical transport and minimum susceptibility to strain; (b) Getting insight into microstructural and morphological evolution of the polymer films under strain, incl. crystallinity, crystal orientation, and a time series of microstructure and morphology evolution in PDVT-8 films spin-coated atop PDMS.This information is necessary to tailor the polymer film function and properties in electronic devices. We build on our earlier studies at the XMaS beamline: Ph-TDPP-Ph polymer films-showed solution dependent microstructure and C8-BTBT oligomer films-showed signs of microstructural changes under uniaxial mechanical strain.