Self-assembly of thiophene-based luminescent thin films on flexible substrates.

Abstract

Luminescent organic thin films are widely used in optoelectronic devices for sensing, imaging and data processing. Herein, the transition to a flexible form is accompanied by a number of challenges associated with a limited endurance and bending-dependent properties. Here we report a study on the growth of thin films based on thiophene-based luminescent molecular crystals (MC) on a flexible polypropylene (PP) substrate of a various thicknesses (400 μm to 50 μm). The resulting flexible thin films demonstrate the stability of their luminescent properties under mechanical bending (up to 100 times) at ambient conditions, which pave the way for large scale production of planar optoelectronic components.