Chang Liu, Wenxian Hu, Hanqiu Jiang, Guoming Liu*, Charles C. Han, Henning Sirringhaus, François Boué, and Dujin Wang

The determination of intrinsic chain stiffness of conjugated polymers is challenging, in particular, for scattering techniques because of their strong light absorption and structural instability due to the complicated intra-/intermolecular interactions. In this work, the chain conformation and aggregation formation of a high charge mobility donor–acceptor polymer (DPPDTT) are systematically investigated by using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and static/dynamic light scattering (SLS/DLS). On the one hand, chloroform was chosen as a good solvent, in which SANS reveals a rod-like geometry with a radius of ∼15 Å. Once the absorption effect is properly accounted for, SLS shows a power law of 1 between the radius of gyration (R_g) and molecular weight (M_w) and a negative second virial coefficient (A₂). On the other hand, 1,2-dichlorobenzene was chosen as a poor solvent, in which SANS, SLS/DLS, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) reveal a strong temperature-/concentration-dependent assembling behavior. The results provide a general picture of the multiscale assembly process of conjugated polymers.

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.0c01646