Hydrogen-bonded supramolecular electrets comprising block copolymers and amino-functionalized porphyrin for low-power-consumption phototransistors

The power consumption of a unit transistor in an integrated circuit has been a major concern in the recent semiconductor industry. To mitigate the high-power consumption of organic phototransistors, this study utilizes a block copolymer (BCP) comprising poly(4-vinylpyridine-b-acrylonitrile) (P4VP-b-PACN) in combination with meso-tetra(4-aminophenyl) porphine (TAPP) to create a hydrogen-bonded supramolecular electret. The BCP facilitated the formation of distinct P4VP and PACN domains, with TAPP allocated proximal to P4VP to reduce dispersion and eliminate hysteresis effects. Notably, TAPP plays a role in adjusting device performance by modulating the hydrogen-bonding interactions. The findings reveal that the phototransistor comprising an optimal composition ratio of 1:2 between BCP and TAPP resulted in the lowest dark current noise of 5.56 × 10−14 A Hz−0.5, the high detectivity of 1.37 × 1010 Jones, and fast rise time and fall time of 0.172 s and 0.080 s, showcasing excellent performance across various wavelengths and in low-light conditions. Finally, the phototransistor comprising the optimized structure presents an ultralow power consumption in the range of nW under light illumination and in the range of pW under dark conditions along a long-term stability test. This is much lower than the typical phototransistors, which have a high power consumption of tens μW under the light state and μW to nW under the dark state. The result indicates that using hydrogen-bonded supramolecules in phototransistors effectively enhances the rate of photoresponse while maintaining their device currents. [Display omitted] •Low-power-consumption organic phototransistors using insulating diblock copolymers.•Supramolecular electret with hydrogen-bonding interactions.•Amino-functionalized porphyrin as a photogate in the supramolecule electret.