Traversing the polymorphic landscape through tuning molecule-molecule, molecule-substrate and molecule-solvent interactions

As subtle changes in the crystalline packing motif of molecular semiconductors can have a large impact on charge transport, a thorough understanding of the accessibility of polymorphs in thin films is needed. Using a series of core-chlorinated naphthalene tetracarboxylic diimides, we demonstrate that the choice of the alkyl substituents at the imide functionalities, as well as the choice of substrate and post-deposition processing conditions, tune the relative strengths of molecule-molecule, molecule-substrate and molecule-solvent interactions, providing a handle over polymorphic selection. We access the triclinic polymorph of NTCDI-CH$_{\mathrm{2}}$C$_{\mathrm{3}}$F$_{\mathrm{7}}$ in thermally evaporated thin films; solvent-vapor annealing induces a reversible transformation to its monoclinic polymorph. The addition of a fluoromethylene group in the alkyl substituent increases molecule-molecule interactions and, accordingly, improves the stability of its triclinic polymorph; this derivative does not undergo a polymorphic transformation with any of the post-deposition conditions we have explored.