Journal ArticleDOI
A general relationship between disorder, aggregation and charge transport in conjugated polymers
Rodrigo Noriega,Rodrigo Noriega,Jonathan Rivnay,Jonathan Rivnay,Koen Vandewal,Felix P. V. Koch,Natalie Stingelin,Natalie Stingelin,Paul Smith,Michael F. Toney,Alberto Salleo +10 more
TLDR
In this article, a unified model of how charge carriers travel in conjugated polymer films is proposed, and it is shown that in high-molecular-weight polymers, efficient charge transport is allowed due to a network of interconnected aggregates that are characterized by short-range order.Abstract:
Conjugated polymer chains have many degrees of conformational freedom and interact weakly with each other, resulting in complex microstructures in the solid state. Understanding charge transport in such systems, which have amorphous and ordered phases exhibiting varying degrees of order, has proved difficult owing to the contribution of electronic processes at various length scales. The growing technological appeal of these semiconductors makes such fundamental knowledge extremely important for materials and process design. We propose a unified model of how charge carriers travel in conjugated polymer films. We show that in high-molecular-weight semiconducting polymers the limiting charge transport step is trapping caused by lattice disorder, and that short-range intermolecular aggregation is sufficient for efficient long-range charge transport. This generalization explains the seemingly contradicting high performance of recently reported, poorly ordered polymers and suggests molecular design strategies to further improve the performance of future generations of organic electronic materials. The recent demonstration that highly disordered polymer films can transport charges as effectively as polycrystalline semiconductors has called into question the relationship between structural order and mobility in organic materials. It is now shown that, in high-molecular-weight polymers, efficient charge transport is allowed due to a network of interconnected aggregates that are characterized by short-range order.read more
Citations
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25th anniversary article: organic field-effect transistors: the path beyond amorphous silicon.
TL;DR: In this paper, the state-of-the-art in organic field effect transistors (OFETs) are reviewed in light of requirements for demanding future applications, in particular active-matrix addressing for flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays.
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Organic Optoelectronic Materials: Mechanisms and Applications
TL;DR: The article reviews the current understanding of the physical mechanisms that determine the (opto)electronic properties of high-performance organic materials and highlights the capabilities of various experimental techniques for characterization, summarizes top-of-the-line device performance, and outlines recent trends in the further development of the field.
Journal ArticleDOI
Non-fullerene acceptors with branched side chains and improved molecular packing to exceed 18% efficiency in organic solar cells
Chao Li,Jiadong Zhou,Jiali Song,Jinqiu Xu,Huotian Zhang,Xuning Zhang,Jing Guo,Lei Zhu,Donghui Wei,Guangchao Han,Jie Min,Yuan Zhang,Zengqi Xie,Yuanping Yi,He Yan,Feng Gao,Feng Liu,Yanming Sun +17 more
TL;DR: Li et al. as discussed by the authors showed that branched alkyl chains in non-fullerene acceptors allow favorable morphology in the active layer, enabling a certified device efficiency of 17.32% with a fill factor of 81.5% for single-junction organic solar cells.
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Organic thermoelectric materials for energy harvesting and temperature control
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss recent breakthroughs for organic materials with high thermoelectric figures of merit and indicate how these materials may be incorporated into new module designs that take advantage of their mechanical properties.
Journal ArticleDOI
H- and J-Aggregate Behavior in Polymeric Semiconductors
Frank C. Spano,Carlos Silva +1 more
TL;DR: Formalisms describing absorption and photoluminescence lineshapes are reviewed, based on intra- and intermolecular excitonic coupling, electron-vibrational coupling, and correlated energetic disorder.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Two-dimensional charge transport in self-organized, high-mobility conjugated polymers
Henning Sirringhaus,Peter J. Brown,Richard H. Friend,Martin Nielsen,Klaus Bechgaard,B.M.W. Langeveld-Voss,A. J. H. Spiering,René A. J. Janssen,E. W. Meijer,P. T. Herwig,Dago M. de Leeuw +10 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used thin-film, field effect transistor structures to probe the transport properties of the ordered microcrystalline domains in the conjugated polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene), P3HT.
Journal ArticleDOI
Enhanced power-conversion efficiency in polymer solar cells using an inverted device structure
TL;DR: In this article, the authors showed that PFN can be incorporated into polymer light-emitting devices (PLEDs) to enhance electron injection from high-work-function metals such as aluminium (work function w of 4.3 eV) and gold (w ¼ 5.2 eV).
Journal ArticleDOI
π-Conjugated Polymers for Organic Electronics and Photovoltaic Cell Applications†
TL;DR: In this article, a review of π-conjugated polymeric semiconductors for organic thin-film (or field effect) transistors (OTFTs or OFETs) and bulk-heterojunction photovoltaic (or solar) cell (BHJ-OPV or OSC) applications are summarized and analyzed.
Journal ArticleDOI
Dependence of Regioregular Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Film Morphology and Field-Effect Mobility on Molecular Weight
R. Joseph Kline,Michael D. McGehee,Ekaterina N. Kadnikova,Jinsong Liu,Jean M. J. Fréchet,Michael F. Toney +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors showed that in-plane π-stacking does not cause the mobility−MW relationship, and that modifying the morphology for a constant number-average molecular weight (MW) by changing the casting conditions or annealing the samples strongly affects the charge transport and morphology in the low-mobility, low-MW films, but has little effect on the high-mogulular poly(3-hexylthiophene).
Journal ArticleDOI
Role of Intermolecular Coupling in the Photophysics of Disordered Organic Semiconductors: Aggregate Emission in Regioregular Polythiophene
TL;DR: The role of excitonic coupling on the nature of photoexcitations in the conjugated polymer regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) is addressed by means of temperature-dependent absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy.