Enhancing Hole Transport and Autonomous Healing Properties of Supramolecular Columns in Unsymmetrical Discotics

Abstract

Designing smart autonomous healing soft materials is crucial to attaining cost-efficiency and optimal performance in organic semiconductors. In this context, we design an unsymmetrical thiophene-fused phenazine (TFP)-based discotic liquid crystal (DLC) with the goal of creating an active organic semiconductor that encompasses favorable attributes, such as polarizability, mobility, and processability. Aligned with our objective, we successfully synthesized two unsymmetrical TFP core-based DLCs by linking alkyl chains of variable lengths at the periphery through a coupling reaction. These DLCs show room temperature columnar oblique (Col_ob) mesophase as evident from temperature-dependent studies employing polarized optical microscopy (POM) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). We performed space charge-limited current (SCLC) techniques to evaluate the hole mobility of TFP-based DLCs and found that they have high hole mobility (∼10^–3 cm²/V s). Additionally, the film morphology and its self-healing nature have been examined using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and stress relaxation test. One of the unsymmetrical DLCs exhibited an ability to relax stress over time while maintaining a constant strain (up to 1–3%). The rational design of these unsymmetrical discotics, exhibiting reduced threshold voltage (as confirmed by conductivity studies) highlights their possible potential in various organic semiconductor devices.