Organic Semiconductor/Insulator Blends for Elastic Field-Effect Transistors and Sensors

Organic semiconductors encounter limitations in their practical applicability in future electronics due to their low environmental stability and poor charge carrier mobilities. Blending with isolation of thermoplastic polymers and elastomers circumvents these restrictions and even induces new material properties, opening the door to novel flexible and stretchable electronics that hold great potential for improving people's life. This review discusses next generation applications of solution processable organic semiconductor/insulator blends in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). The fundamental basis is a comprehensive understanding of the phase separation mechanism that determines the morphology formation and electronic properties of the thin blend film. Continuous charge carrier pathways in blend OFETs are established by controlled phase separation through the chemical structure of components and the processing conditions. Recent advances in organic semiconductor/insulator blends with enhanced device properties including charge carrier mobility, life-time, sensing ability, and especially mechanical behavior are reviewed with emphasis on implication in flexible and stretchable electronics. The concept of tuning existing properties and creating new ones of electronically active materials by blending with well-selected insulators has great potential also for other types of electronic devices and classes of semiconductors.