Solution processed air-stable p-channel organic crystal field-effect transistors of Aminobenzodifuranone

A novel donor-acceptor type aminobenzodifuranone based chromophore molecule, coded as ABDF, with a benzodifuranone (BDF) core as acceptor and an N-ethylamino side chain as donor moiety was synthesized and used in single crystal organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). The optical, thermal, electrochemical properties of ABDF were also investigated. Compared to other BDF or halogenated BDF analogs, the solution absorption of ABDF exhibits large bathochromic shift over 100 nm, indicating the strong intramolecular charge transfer intensity within the molecules. In particular, the incorporation of amino groups into the BDF core also enables the formation of intermolecular hydrogen-bonding interactions in the solid states of ABDF as proved by the FT-IR results. The crystalline ABDF based OFET devices was simply prepared by drop-casting the ABDF solution on to the electrode-prepatterned substrates, giving a hole mobility as high as 0.42 cm2/V·s without large degradation after store in ambient environment for up to two months. ABDF is a promising chromophore for high performance organic field-effect transistors.