Themed collection Functional Organic Materials for Optoelectronic Applications

Guest Editors Graeme Cooke, Ivana Evans and Peter Skabara introduce this themed collection on functional organic materials for optoelectronic applications, in celebration of Professor Martin Bryce’s contributions to this field.

A neutral Ir(III) complex has been synthesized by introducing a carboxyl group and fluorine substituents into the ligands to construct a new piezochromic luminescence (PCL) active material.

Rather than donor–acceptor dihedral angles, the TADF performance of DMAC–BZN positional isomers is instead controlled by differences in acceptor strength arising from π-system electron density – along with a through-space dipole interaction.

For the first time in perovskite solar cells, phenothiazine has been introduced as a low cost substituent to replace the commonly-used dimethoxydiphenylamine, which constitutes almost 90% of the final cost of hole transport materials.

Annealing is shown to increase both exciton diffusion and domain size in two organic photovoltaic materials. This enables both efficient light harvesting and efficient charge extraction.

We report a strategy for positively influencing the conformation of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) molecules containing phenothiazine and dibenzothiophene-S,S-dioxide units.

Two thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters bearing a new dipyridylsulfone core as the electron-accepting unit and di-tert-butyl carbazoles as electron-donating units are reported.

A new HTM incorporating a saddle-like, thiophene-rich core endowed with four triphenylamine units is proposed. The new HTM leads to PSCs reaching efficiencies up to 16.3%.

Effect of the peptide-based quaterthiophene self-assembly process on the charge mobility properties of the n/p-materials formed is studied.

Geminate recombination rates are successfully predicted for series of small-molecule bulk heterojunction solar cells applying the Marcus–Levich–Jortner equation.

A novel star-shaped π-conjugated oligomer containing a benzodithiophene core and four diketopyrrolopyrrole arms is reported.

Gold nanoparticle capped organometallic molecular junctions are prepared from a single source precursor by simple self-assembly and mild thermolysis.

The time-resolved photophysical analysis of a multi-color-changing mechanochromic luminescent compound has been disclosed, which reveals distinct different emission paths to boost TADF and RTP of the emitter depending on its molecular conformations.

Two naphthyridine-based emitters are demonstrated to be TADF and AIE emitters to afford superior EL efficiencies in non-doped OLEDs.

Two new homoleptic platinum(II) complexes are reported that feature aryl-appended 5-(2-pyridyl)-1,2,4-triazole chelates acting as N^N⁻ ligating ions, PtL¹₂ and PtL²₂. They have been used to prepare high-efficiency OLEDs, in which unimolecular and bimolecular excited states contribute green and red emission respectively.

Increased emission through the oxidation of tetrathiafulvalene redox-active centres in star-shaped oligofluorene structures.

We investigate the single-molecule electrical conductance of alkane rings connected to gold electrodes and demonstrate that their logarithmic conductances are ocillatory functions of length.

Efficient harvesting of energy of the triplet exited state of dim organic phosphors by conjugated fluorophores is a general phenomenon that would be applicable for construction of novel photoluminescence-based sensors and organic light emitting devices.

A theoretical protocol developed to study the low-energy tail of the absorption spectrum of homoleptic biscyclometalated ruthenium and osmium complexes.

1,2,4-Benzotriazinyl based stable diradicals possess singlet ground states and small singlet–triplet energy gaps with a thermal accessible triplet excited state.

Turn it up! Inter-ion interactions and ligand design can synergistically boost emission from Cu(I) complexes, tuning from orange to yellow.

A combined experimental and theoretical study demonstrates the critical role of intramolecular S⋯S interactions in dictating the planar conformation of an extended tetrathiafulvalene.

The impact of solution temperature-dependent aggregation of PffBT4T-2OD and PBT4T-2OD polymers on their electronic and solid-state packing properties is investigated using MD simulations and DFT calculations.

Blue multi-functional emitters with a perfluorobiphenyl moiety exhibiting polymorphism and changing emission colour.

The structure of the π-bridge in an ortho-functionalized PDI plays a crucial role in controlling the active layer morphology.