Electron and hole transport in an anthracene-based conjugated polymer

The bulk transport properties of an anthracene-containing poly(p-phenylene-ethynylene)-alt-poly (p-phenylene-vinylene) (AnE-PVstat) were investigated by small-signal time-of-flight. AnE-PVstat exhibited a very good ambipolar behaviour, consistent with the high delocalization of both frontier molecular orbitals. The transport of negative carriers was found to be even faster than that of positive carriers, with an electron drift mobility of about six times higher than that evaluated for holes, suggesting that conjugated polymers with carbon-carbon triple bonds could represent a promising platform toward high performance ambipolar materials for plastic electronics. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4742738]