Themed collection Newly emerged organic optoelectronics: materials and devices

This Feature Article reviews characterization technology, charge transport mechanisms, and applications of single-molecule optoelectronics, while addressing current challenges and future prospects.

The strategic incorporation of oxygen atoms into polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has emerged as an effective strategy for developing advanced organic materials with precisely tailored optoelectronic functionalities.

This review summarizes recent advances in AIP Pt(II) complexes, covering design strategies, photophysical mechanisms (RIM, RSDE, oxygen shielding), and applications in imaging, OLEDs, and sensing, while highlighting future development directions.

Structure–property correlations of tetraphenylbenzidine-based self-assembled monolayers are established, guiding the tailored design of efficient p–i–n perovskite and organic solar cells.

A novel electroactive supramolecular floating-gate dielectric is developed by utilizing host–guest interactions between β-cyclodextrin and ferrocene to improve phototransistors’ current stability and performance with perovskite quantum dots.

Systematic investigation on the ring-size-dependent optoelectronic and electric properties of hexa-n-dodecyloxy-substituted [n]DBA derivatives reveals enhanced hole mobility in antiaromatic systems.

Dimerized small molecule acceptors are constructed by linker isomerization strategy with centrosymmetric benzodithiophene (BDT) and its axisymmetric isomer (i-BDT) as the linkers to modulate packing morphologies and photovoltaic performance.

Modulated by chalcogen effect, polymer SeDPP-Te exhibited high hole mobility and shortwave infrared phototransistor performance, with photoresponsivity, photosensitivity and specific detectivity up to 34.0 A W⁻¹, 27.6 and 2.76 × 10¹¹ Jones.

We report a white organic light-emitting diode with a low turn-on voltage of less than 1.5 V. We utilized upconversion that can produce high-energy blue emission at a small voltage, and incorporated sky-blue and yellow dopants to realize white color.

The photovoltaic performance of bifunctional linkage GMA systems is significantly boosted. Systematic investigation of side-chain engineering effects on morphology, charge carrier dynamics in bifunctional linkage GMAs is performed.

A series of “halt-lantern” [Pt(piq)(μ-N^S)]₂ complexes (piq = 1-phenylisoquinolinate) with different bridging thiolates (N^S) show bright deep-red emissions and are implemented as phosphors in hybrid light-emitting diodes (HLEDs).

Using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy to determine interfacial energy levels between the crystalline light-emitting layer and the amorphous electron transport layer the efficiency of crystalline organic light-emitting diodes can be improved.

Steric hindrance effects, MR-TADF, and TSCT have been integrated into non-conjugated polymers to achieve highly efficient MR-TADF emission with near-unity PLQY. Solution-processed OLEDs achieve a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 12.7%.

An easily synthesized silicon phthalocyanine with hydrophilic axial substitutions is used to fabricate the first phthalocyanine-based n-type organic electrochemical transistor.

The conformational coplanarity and local rigidity of π-conjugated backbones are critical for the semiconducting performance of organic electronic materials.

Pei et al. synthesized BDPBoc, which can be thermally deprotected to yield BDP fragment with record-high electron-donating ability in conjugated polymers. It induces a strong donor–acceptor effect, resulting in optimal charge transport performances.

Incorporating BO-4I optimizes ternary all-small-molecule solar cells, achieving 16.26% efficiency via enhanced crystallinity and morphology control.

Incorporation of DMAcPA into quasi-2D perovskite films enables significant trap passivation, enhanced crystallinity, and extended operational lifetimes in efficient deep-blue and sky-blue PeLEDs.

A new electron-deficient building block, dithienobenzobisthiadiazole, was designed to construct wide-bandgap polymer donors for efficient organic solar cells.

Modulating the number of methoxy groups in the thiophene π-bridges modifies the A–π–A type quasi-macromolecular acceptors. Employing 3-methoxythiophene as the π-bridge enhances molecular planarity and V_OC, achieving a high PCE.

This research article describes the reduction of energy levels of quinoidal D–A IID-based copolymers, the enhancement of film crystallinity and ambipolar transport characteristics in OFETs by introducing fluorine atoms into the QBTAIID unit.

Crystalline p–n heterojunctions with phase-separated heterostructures are fabricated using a one-step drop-casting strategy. The as-prepared artificial synaptic devices achieved a validation accuracy of over 97% on the MNIST dataset.

By introducing chemical crosslinking to regulate the aggregation of the conjugated polymer films, excellent carrier mobility and stretchability can be achieved simultaneously. It shows great potential in wearable electronics.

A closed-shell quinoidal D–A–D molecule constructed from CPDT was introduced as guest acceptor in PBDB-T:Y6 active layer to fabricate ternary outdoor and indoor OSCs.

The significant self-heating of high-power high-speed organic field-effect transistors was investigated, and an effective thermal management method was proposed.

The cascade energy transfer in WOLEDs has been mediated by the highly efficient carbene-Cu(I)-amide complex as sensitizer. A color-stable WOLED was achieved with a high EQE of 21.0%, excellent CIE coordinates of (0.38, 0.40), and a high CRI of 83.

Substituents of the quinoxaline core influence the aggregation properties of S-shaped acceptors.

Simple polymer Po2F composed of non-fused rings of o-difluorobenzene-quarterthiophene possesses low synthetic complexity and affords OSC devices with a notable efficiency of 15.45%.

A facile approach enables multi-stimuli-responsive and steady-state color-tunable luminescence in UOP materials by regulating multimode emissions, allowing direct visualization-based applications in multicolor patterning and visual monitoring system.

The rational introduction of donor to modulate the charge transfer excited-state characteristics of multiple-resonance structures facilitates the reverse intersystem crossing process while maintaining a narrow full width at half maximum.

Polyethylenimine (PEI) modified with tin(II) ions serves as an effective electron transport layer in inverted polymer solar cells, achieving a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.5%, which exceeds the 15.7% PCE of traditional PEI-based devices.

Excellent low-cost non-fused ring electron acceptors (NFREAs) are important for future large-scale application of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells (BHJ OSCs).

A multi-dimensional shielding acceptor structure endows TADF molecules with a large steric hindrance and manipulates molecular stacking, resulting in an external quantum efficiency of 24.1% for solution-processed sky-blue OLEDs.