p-Type doping of Poly(3-hexylthiophene) with the strong lewis acid Tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane

State-of-the-art p-type doping of organic semiconductors is usually achieved by employing strong p-electron acceptors, a prominent example being tetrafluorotetracyanoquinodimethane (F4TCNQ). Here, doping of the semiconducting model polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene), P3HT, using the strong Lewis acid tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane (BCF) as a dopant, is investigated by admittance, conductivity, and electron paramagnetic resonance measurements. The electrical characteristics of BCF- and F4TCNQ-doped P3HT layers are shown to be very similar in terms of the mobile hole density and the doping efficiency. Roughly 18% of the employed dopants create mobile holes in either F4TCNQ- or BCF-doped P3HT, while the majority of doping-induced holes remain strongly Coulomb-bound to the dopant anions. Despite similar hole densities, conductivity and hole mobility are higher in BCF-doped P3HT layers than in F4TCNQ-doped samples. This and the good solubility in many organic solvents render BCF very useful for p-type doping of organic semiconductors.