Themed collection Challenges and prospects in organic photonics and electronics

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The research topics and discussions that emerged during the Faraday Discussion meeting 2023 on challenges and prospects in organic photonics and electronics are concisely summarized, including the author’s perspectives and suggestions, particularly on interdisciplinary issues.

9-[1,4]Benzoxaborino[2,3,4-kl]phenoxaborine-7-yl-1,3,6,8-tetramethyl-9H-carbazole, a donor–acceptor linked TADF molecule with a very short delay lifetime of 750 ns, exhibits a peculiar thermal behavior similar to that of negative gap materials.

The excited-state character and symmetry of four heptazine-based TADF materials with C₃-symmetric ground states are investigated to explain differences in their photophysical properties and rates of reverse intersystem crossing.

2D donor–acceptor polymer heterojunctions formed via templation are found to give materials with higher photocatalytic activity than the individual semiconductor components.

Oligomer-based charge-transfer complexes display a diversified carrier-to-carrier Coulomb repulsion (U_eff) and intermolecular interactions (W), enabling flexible tuning of electrical conductivities.

An OFET device enables the simultaneous detection of the reversible and irreversible oxidation of an organic sulfur compound by H₂O₂ at a solid–liquid interface, which was applied to the monitoring of an enzymatic reaction in an aqueous solution.

Our results suggest that singlet fission occurs incoherently on a relatively slow (picosecond) timescale in rubrene orthorhombic single crystals, directly generating weakly-coupled triplets. We see no evidence of triplet-pair emission from ¹(TT).

We report on the design and synthesis of new electron-accepting π-conjugated molecules containing cyclopentene-annelated thiophene with a spiro-substituted 2,7-bis(2-ethylhexyl)fluorene unit as a green-light wavelength-selective nonfullerene acceptor for use in agrivoltaics.

A series of halogenated carbazole-TTM radical dyads are evaluated, and the absence of heavy atom effects was systematically studied.

We have studied the influence of the content of the ethylene glycol side chain and its linkage on the formation of active Grignard monomer species upon Grignard metathesis in three thiophene derivatives.

The thermoelectric properties of organometallic coordination polymers (OMCPs) are influenced by the geometry of their backbone, thus underscoring the intricate nature of the structural elements to consider when designing novel thermoelectric OMCPs.

The mechanism of the giant Seebeck effect over 0.1 V K⁻¹ in pure organic semiconductors is discussed based on recent experimental findings.

We fabricated MISM and MISIM devices using DA-type single-component molecules as the S layer and examined their photocurrent and polarization hysteresis.

This study facilitates the synthesis of cadmium-free QDs, enhances their photoluminescence, and proposes a new LED device structure suitable for these QDs.

Via modulating cyano-functionalized polythiophene backbones, the new polymer CNg4T2-CNT2 delivered an impressive n-type power factor of 10.84 μW m⁻¹ K⁻² with a high conductivity of 13.2 S cm⁻¹.

A cost-effective method to address the issues of strong acidity and exciton quenching of PEDOT:PSS was developed by diluting it with deionized water. The solution-processed organic LEDs achieved almost doubled efficiencies with the modified PEDOT:PSS.

A multi-level theoretical protocol is developed to characterize the charge transport of a novel indoloindole-based hole-transporting material. The implications of molecular shape, dynamic disorder and amorphousness on the hole mobilities are discussed.

Unsubstituted squarephaneic tetraimide with reduced solubility due to H-bonding interactions is synthesised, characterised, and tested as a battery electrode material.

A phenazine-based conjugated microporous polymer cathode provides high cycle stability (75% retention after 127 days), low capacity fade (0.19 mA h g⁻¹ per day) and excellent rate capability (62 mA h g⁻¹; 54% retention at 50C).

Actively modulated amplified spontaneous emission was observed from a liquid crystalline blend C4alkyne-HBT/5CB where the concentration quenching of excited states was avoided by molecular design of excited state intermolecular proton transfer.

We explore alternative non-covalent surface chemistry to functionalize CNTs with aptamers. We harness the adhesive properties of poly-D-lysine to coat CNTs, then graft histamine-specific DNA aptamers electrostatically in close proximity to the CNT semiconducting channel.

The presence of O₂ was found to cause the reduction of O₂ on the SWCNT surface in protic solvent, resulting in production of dimethylbenzimidazole cations and water through proton-coupled electron transfer from the n-doped SWCNT and ethanol.