Organic Semiconductor Alignment via Confinement in Vapor-Guided Droplets

Abstract

Organic semiconductors are lightweight, solution-processable materials with strong potential for printed and flexible electronics, from deformable displays to wearable sensors. Despite significant advances in materials synthesis and manufacturing, controlling molecular and mesoscale alignment during deposition remains a central challenge, as film morphology critically governs charge transport and device performance. Here, we demonstrate that flows developing within the intrinsically confined volume of microliter vapor-guided droplets can be harnessed to produce highly aligned organic semiconductor films. As droplets move in response to an external vapor source, internal flows align organic semiconducting nanowires within the droplet prior to deposition, yielding films with pronounced directional order. Organic field-effect transistors fabricated with this approach exhibit approximately 40% enhancement in saturation current relative to spin-coated controls. Beyond improved device performance, the contactless and compact nature of our method enables the deposition and alignment of organic semiconductors on curved and flexible surfaces. More broadly, vapor-guided droplets offer a scalable framework for the confinement-induced alignment of functional soft materials, with potential for integration into existing additive manufacturing platforms for flexible electronics and beyond.