Recently, two different groups have reported independently that the mobility of field-effect transistors made from regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) increases strongly with molecular weight. Two different models were presented: one proposing carrier trapping at grain boundaries and the second putting emphasis on the conformation and packing of the polymer chains in the thin layers for different molecular weights. Here, we present the results of detailed investigations of powders and thin films of deuterated P3HT fractions with different molecular weight. For powder samples, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to investigate the structure and crystallization behavior of the polymers. The GPC investigations show that all weight fractions possess a rather broad molecular weight distribution. DSC measurements reveal a strong decrease of the crystallization temperature and, most important, a significant decrease of the degree of crystallinity with decreasing molecular weight. To study the structure of thin layers in lateral and vertical directions, both transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray grazing incidence diffraction (GID) were utilized. These methods show that thin layers of the low molecular weight fraction consist of well-defined crystalline domains embedded in a disordered matrix. We propose that the transport properties of layers prepared from fractions of poly(3-hexylthiophene) with different molecular weight are largely determined by the crystallinity of the samples and not by the perfection of the packing of the chains in the individual crystallites.

We report cyclic voltammetry measurements for the blue electroluminescent conjugated polymer poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene). Both oxidation and reduction potentials are determined and thus estimates of both the ionization potential Ip and electron affinity Ea of the polymer are obtained for the same sample under the same experimental conditions. We estimate Ip=5.80 eV and Ea=2.12 eV. These results disagree with the common assumption that Ea is, to good approximation, given by the difference between Ip and the optical gap. Measurements on indium tin oxide/polyfluorene/calcium light emitting diode structures are consistent with the deductions from the electrochemical data.