Directional Electrical Conductivity in Oriented Benzotrithiophene COF Thin Films

The field of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) - highly ordered, crystalline polymers based on organic building blocks - opened up a pathway to tailor-made organic materials, as the properties of COFs could be widely modified by tuning the chemical properties and geometries of the building blocks. We report the characterization of two novel highly crystalline and porous COFs based on a novel type thiophene-extended benzotrithiophene (BTT) based building block [1]. Both materials were grown as highly oriented, crystalline thin films on various substrates and extensively structurally and electronically characterized. The electronic measurements revealed a strongly directional charge transport in the thin films, which could be explained using classical molecular-dynamics simulations and indicate the future potential of these material.

[1] Frey, Pöhls et al. "Oriented Thiophene-Extended Benzotrithiophene Covalent Organic Framework Thin Films: Directional Electrical Conductivity", Adv. Funct. Mater.

DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202205949 (2022)