Influence of annealing temperature on morphologies and crystallinity of pure and blended diketopyrrolopyrrole-containing oligothiophene thin films

Highlights: • The phase transition of oligothiophene/PCBM thin film was investigated. • The crystallinity improved with increasing the annealing temperature. • A phase transition occurred in oligothiophene/PCBM films at 100 °C. - Abstract: We investigated the variations in solution-processed thin films containing pure diketopyrrolopyrrole-containing oligothiophene (SMDPPEH) or SMDPPEH blended with [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) under the different annealing temperatures. The optical properties, microstructures, and surface morphologies of the two types of thin films were characterized with UV–vis absorption spectra, grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). SMDPPEH thin film annealed at 100 °C exhibited a blue-shift of absorption maximum (λ_max) peaks. GIXRD results of two types of films showed that (100) diffraction peak intensities were enhanced by increasing annealing temperatures and their shapes were changed from dot to arc when annealing temperatures were beyond 100 °C. AFM results showed that the films grain sizes increased as annealing temperature increased. AFM results also showed obvious large-size phase segregation in the films as annealing temperature increased to 125 °C. These results indicated that the crystallinity improved with increasing annealing temperature and a phase transition occurred in SMDPPEH films at the annealing temperature of 100 °C. This phase transition may lead to maximum device performance.