Organic memory effect from donor–acceptor polymers based on 7-perfluorophenyl-6H-[1,2,5]thiadiazole[3,4-g]benzoimidazole

A novel D–A conjugated polymer (PIBT-BDT) with 7-perfluorophenyl-6H-[1,2,5]thiadiazole[3,4-g]benzoimidazole is synthesized by the Stille coupling reaction. A memory device with PIBT-BDT as the active layer shows a large on/off ratio (>105), good endurance (>100 cycles), and long retention (>104 s). Through simulating the I–V curves and analysing energy barriers in the device structure, we suggest that the memory effect of Au/PIBT-BDT/ITO originates from the charge transfer between the strong acceptor (IBT) units and the donor BDT units.