Liquid-like Slippery Dielectric Surfaces Boosting Electrical Performance of Organic Field-Effect Transistors

Interfacial engineering is essential for optimizing thin-film device performance with rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and neuromorphic devices. However, dynamic wettability—rather than static wettability—has largely been overlooked, hampering the diversity of interfacial engineering. Here, liquid-like slippery surfaces, a unique type of super-wetting surfaces with exceptional dynamic hydrophobicity, were decorated for the first time at semiconductor/dielectric interfaces. For systematic investigation, a series of siloxane-based molecular layers with varied sliding properties, including liquid-like slippery surfaces, were modified on SiO2 dielectric layers, and compared with conventional trichlorooctadecylsilane (OTDS) surfaces. These surfaces were incorporated into organic field effect transistors (OFETs) featuring a high-performance liquid crystal organic semiconductor (OSC), 2-Dodecyl-7-phenyl[1]benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene (Ph-BTBT-12), to evaluate interfacial wettability, OSC growth, device electrical performance, and interrelated dynamics. The resulting OFETs with slippery surfaces demonstrated mobilities (3.90 cm2V–1s–1) nearly threefold as high as those with ODTS. A strong correlation was established among interface wettability, OSC film morphologies and enhanced device performance: The improved dynamic wettability, combined with thermal annealing, modulates the morphology, facilitates molecular packing and phase transition of the vacuum-sublimed OSC, enhancing charge transport of devices. This provides valuable insights into leveraging high dynamic wettability to optimize electronic performance and facilitate the fabrication of thin-film devices.