Tuning Thermal Stability through Dopant Size in Chemically Doped DPP–Thiophene Polymers

Molecular doping of conjugated polymers (CPs) is a key strategy for improving the performance of organic electronics devices, particularly thermoelectrics. Doped donor-acceptor (D-A) conjugated polymers, characterized by a tunable energy gap between the Fermi level and the transport band, show great promise in achieving high electrical conductivity (σ) while preserving a favorable Seebeck coefficient (<i>S</i>). Despite the promising performance enhancement of chemically doped D-A polymers, their thermal stability remains largely underexplored, a crucial consideration for the long-term operation of organic thermoelectric devices. In this study, we investigated the dopant size-dependent thermal stability of a diketopyrrolopyrrole-thiophene (DPP-T) D-A copolymer, utilizing two p-dopants: 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F₄TCNQ) and Mo-(tfd-CO₂Me)₃. Temperature-dependent UV-vis-NIR spectroscopy revealed that DPP-T/F₄TCNQ is more prone to dedoping under a high temperature thermal stress than DPP-T/Mo-(tfd-CO₂Me)₃. Although the F₄TCNQ doped polymer shows higher initial in-plane conductivity than its Mo-(tfd-CO₂Me)₃ counterpart, it undergoes a conductivity loss of more than an order of magnitude after annealing at 120 °C for 30 min. In contrast, the in-plane conductivity of DPP-T/Mo-(tfd-CO₂Me)₃ remains stable under the same thermal conditions. Thermogravimetric analysis ruled out dopant sublimation as a primary contributor to dedoping, leading us to attribute the conductivity loss in F₄TCNQ-doped DPP-T to dopant phase separation and migration. This observation was further confirmed by X-ray scattering studies and nanoscale infrared microscopy and spectroscopy studies. This work could provide further insights into the thermal stability of doped conjugated polymers and suggests that incorporating bulkier dopants is an effective strategy to enhance the thermal robustness of doped DPP-type systems.