Designing a Length-Modulated Azide Photocrosslinker to Improve the Stretchability of Semiconducting Polymers

This study compares azide photocrosslinkers with different ethylene glycol spacer lengths in semicrystalline and nearly amorphous conjugated polymers. The shortest crosslinker most effectively improves the stretchability of IDTBT films. The results point to the importance of crosslink density within amorphous regions, rather than assuming that a longer, more flexible crosslinker will always produce a more stretchable film.