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Recent work in structure–processing relationships of polymer semiconductors have demonstrated the versatility and control of thin-film microstructure offered by meniscusguided coating (MGC) techniques. Here, we analyze the qualitative and quantitative aspects of solution shearing, a model MGC method, using coating blades augmented with arrays of pillars. The pillars induce local regions of high strain rates—both shear and extensional—not otherwise possible with unmodified blades, and we use fluid mechanical simulations to model and study a variety of pillar spacings and densities. We then perform a statistical analysis of 130 simulation variables to find correlations with three dependent variables of interest: thin-film degree of crystallinity and transistor field-effect mobilities for charge-transport parallel (Μpara) and perpendicular (Μperp) to the coating direction. Our study suggests that simple fluid mechanical models can reproduce substantive correlations between the induced fluid flow and important performance metrics, providing a methodology for optimizing blade design. Polymer semiconductors have opened up a new frontier of electronics that can be flexible, stretchable, implantable, or biodegradable. While the chemical and electronic properties of these materials are important for their function as the active material in organic electronic devices, the manner by which these organic semiconductors are deposited onto a substrate can significantly influence its charge-transport properties. While a variety of techniques have been investigated to enhance charge-transport behavior, there are few reports approaching the issue in terms of the fluid dynamical considerations relevant during deposition from the solution phase. In this article, we analyze the fluid flow that occurs during thin-film deposition by solution shearing, a representative meniscusguided coating method amenable to high-throughput processing. We investigate a variety of variables related to fluid flow that can be estimated from fluid mechanical simulations of solution shearing with a coating blade patterned with a regular array of pillars used to induce higher fluid strain rates. We find correlations suggestive of underlying relationships between strain rates associated with certain directions and polymer charge-transport properties in the final deposited film. This article establishes a statistical approach using simulation data that can guide patterned blade design to enhance polymer deposition and realize high-performance devices.

For miniaturized capacitive energy storage, volumetric and areal capacitances are more important metrics than gravimetric ones because of the constraints imposed by device volume and chip area. Typically used in commercial supercapacitors, porous carbons, although they provide a stable and reliable performance, lack volumetric performance because of their inherently low density and moderate capacitances. Here we report a high-performing electrode based on conductive hexaaminobenzene (HAB)-derived two-dimensional metal−organic frameworks (MOFs). In addition to possessing a high packing density and hierarchical porous structure, these MOFs also exhibit excellent chemical stability in both acidic and basic aqueous solutions, which is in sharp contrast to conventional MOFs. Submillimetre-thick pellets of HAB MOFs showed high volumetric capacitances up to 760 F cm−3 and high areal capacitances over 20 F cm−2. Furthermore, the HAB MOF electrodes exhibited highly reversible redox behaviours and good cycling stability with a capacitance retention of 90% after 12,000 cycles. These promising results demonstrate the potential of using redox-active conductive MOFs in energy-storage applications. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are attractive electrodes for supercapacitors but generally suffer from low electric conductivity and chemical stability. Here the authors report stable conductive MOFs based on hexaminobenzene linker with volumetric and areal capacitances in excess of 700 F per cm3 and 15 F per cm2, respectively.

Morphology control of solution coated solar cell materials presents a key challenge limiting their device performance and commercial viability. Here we present a new concept for controlling phase separation during solution printing using an all-polymer bulk heterojunction solar cell as a model system. The key aspect of our method lies in the design of fluid flow using a microstructured printing blade, on the basis of the hypothesis of flow-induced polymer crystallization. Our flow design resulted in a ∼90% increase in the donor thin film crystallinity and reduced microphase separated donor and acceptor domain sizes. The improved morphology enhanced all metrics of solar cell device performance across various printing conditions, specifically leading to higher short-circuit current, fill factor, open circuit voltage and significantly reduced device-to-device variation. We expect our design concept to have broad applications beyond all-polymer solar cells because of its simplicity and versatility., Solution printing is a desirable route for manufacturing organic solar cells, whilst the major challenge lies with morphology control. Here, Diao et al. use a microstructured blade to guide the solution flow during printing, which improves polymer crystallization and the resulting device performance.