High-mobility air-stable n-type field-effect transistors based on large-area solution-processed organic single-crystal arrays

Solution-processed n-type organic semiconductor micro/nanocrystals (OSMCs) are fundamental elements for developing low-cost, large-area, and all organic logic/complementary circuits. However, the development of air-stable, highly aligned n-channel OSMC arrays for realizing high-performance devices lags far behind their p-channel counterparts. Herein, we present a simple one-step slope-coating method for the large-scale, solution-processed fabrication of highly aligned, air-stable, n-channel ribbon-shaped single-crystalline N, N′-bis(2-phenylethyl)-perylene-3, 4:9, 10-tetracarboxylic diimide (BPE-PTCDI) arrays. The slope and patterned photoresist (PR) stripes on the substrate are found to be crucial for the formation of large-area submicron ribbon arrays. The width and thickness of the BPE-PTCDI submicron ribbons can be finely tuned by controlling the solution concentration as well as the slope angle. The resulting BPE-PTCDI submicron ribbon arrays possess an optimum electron mobility up to 2.67 cm²·V^–1·s^–1 (with an average mobility of 1.13 cm²·V^–1·s^–1), which is remarkably higher than that of thin film counterparts and better than the performance reported previously for single-crystalline BPE-PTCDI-based devices. Moreover, the devices exhibit robust air stability and remain stable after exposing in air over 50 days. Our study facilitates the development of air-stable, n-channel organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and paves the way towards the fabrication of high-performance, organic single crystal-based integrated circuits.