Ladder‐Type Heteroarene‐Based Organic Semiconductors

The fusion of heteroaromatic rings into ladder‐type heteroarenes can stabilize frontier molecular orbitals and lead to improved physicochemical properties that are beneficial for applications in various optoelectronic devices. Thus, ladder‐type heteroarenes, which feature highly planar backbones and well‐delocalized π conjugation, have recently emerged as a promising type of organic semiconductor with excellent device performance in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs). In this Focus Review, we summarize the recent advances in ladder‐type heteroarene‐based organic semiconductors, such as hole‐ and electron‐transporting molecular semiconductors, and fully ladder‐type conjugated polymers towards their applications in OPVs and OFETs. The recent use of ladder‐type small‐molecule acceptor materials has strikingly boosted the power conversion efficiency of fullerene‐free solar cells, and selected examples of the latest developments in ladder‐type fused‐ring electron acceptor materials are also elaborated.     

Progress of pyrene-based organic semiconductor in organic field effect transistors

Thanks to the pure blue emitting, high planarity, electron rich and ease of chemical modification, pyrene has been thoroughly investigated for applications in organic electronics such as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic field effect transistors (OFETs), and organic solar cells (OSCs). Especially, great progresses have been made of pyrene-based organic semiconductors for OFETs in past decades. Due to the difference of molecular structure, pyrene-based organic semiconductors are divided into three categories, pyrene as terminal group, pyrene as center core and fused pyrene derivatives. This minireview gives a brief introduction of the structure-property relationship and application in OFETs about most of pyrene-based semiconducting materials since 2006, illustrating that pyrene is a good building block to construct semiconductors with superior transport property for OFETs. Finally, we provide a summary concerning the methodology to improve the transport property of the pyrene-based semiconducting materials as well as an outlook.     

新型共轭聚合物的设计合成及其在场效应晶体管的应用

近年来,有机场效应晶体管(OFETs)由于在柔性器件和可穿戴电子学中的潜在应用受到了学术界和工业界的普遍关注,尤其是以聚合物半导体材料构筑的晶体管性能得到了快速的发展.如何设计合成用于OFETs的高性能聚合物半导体材料,一直是我们的追求目标.然而,分子结构对迁移率的影响仍缺少系统的比较.本文综述了近年来国内外新型聚合物材料的最新进展.我们按照材料的种类以及载流子的传输类型进行了分类,对高性能聚合物材料的发展过程、材料的设计思路以及相应的FETs性能进行了系统地归纳总结.通过研究分子及分子聚集态结构与器件性能之间的关系,希望为以后设计合成新型的高性能的聚合物材料提供有益的借鉴和指导.     

并五苯及其衍生物在有机场效应晶体管中的应用

有机场效应晶体管（organic field—effect transistors,OFETs）是以有机半导体材料作为有源层,通过电场控制电流的电子器件．与传统的无机半导体器件相比,由于其可应用于生产大面积、柔性、低成本电子设备而备受关注,在有机存储器件、有机太阳能电池、柔性平板显示和电子纸等众多领域具有潜在而广泛的应用前景．并苯类材料因其紧密的分子堆积及优异的半导体性能被广泛研究．其中,并五苯及其衍生物在场效应晶体管中表现出良好的性质,其效果甚至可以与非晶硅相媲美,但并五苯较差的溶解性及环境稳定性阻碍了其进一步应用．科研工作者通过对分子结构进行修饰改造设计,合成了一系列并五苯的衍生物,其不仅在稳定性、电学性能和溶解性方面有很大提高,还可以将该p-型半导体材料拓展到双极性及n-型半导体材料领域．本文对并五苯及其衍生物在有机场效应晶体管中的应用进行了较为全面的综述,期望对该领域的研究起到一定的推动作用．     

2,2']Bi[naphtho[2,3-b]furanyl]: a versatile organic semiconductor with a furan-furan junction

[2,2']Bi[naphtho[2,3-b]furanyl] was synthesized, characterized, and examined as an organic semiconductor for thin-film OFETs, bilayer OPVs, and organic light-emitting transistors (OLETs). In the devices, the material acted as a p-type semiconductor, showing moderately high mobility in OFETs, good photo conversion efficiency in OPVs, and blue-green emission in OLETs.     

P-type Polymers in Semitransparent Organic Photovoltaics

P-type polymers are polymeric semiconducting materials that conduct holes and have extensive applications in optoelectronics such as organic photovoltaics. Taking the advantage of intrinsic discontinuous light absorption of organic semiconductors, semitransparent organic photovoltaics (STOPVs) present compelling opportunities in various potential applications such as building-integrated photovoltaics, agrivoltaics, automobiles, and wearable electronics. The characteristics of p-type polymers, including optical, electronic, and morphological properties, determine the performance of STOPVs, and the requirements for p-type polymers differ between opaque organic photovoltaics and STOPVs. Hence, in this Minireview, recent advances of p-type polymers used in STOPVs are systematically summarized, with emphasis on the effects of chemical structures, conformation structures, and aggregation structures of p-type polymers on the performance of STOPVs. Furthermore, new design concepts and guidelines are also proposed for p-type polymers to facilitate the future development of high-performance STOPVs.     

Noncovalent conformational locks in organic semiconductors

Highly planar conformation is considered to be one of the most important properties for high performance organic semiconductors. Among all kinds strategies for designing highly performing materials, noncovalent conformational locks(NCLs)have been widely used to increase the planarity and rigidity for π-conjugated systems. This review summarizes π-conjugated small molecules and polymers by employing various NCLs for controlling molecular conformation in the past two years. The optoelectronic properties of the conjugated materials, together with their applications on organic field-effect transistors(OFETs)and organic photovoltaics(OPVs) are discussed. Besides, the outlook and challenges in this field are also presented. It is obvious that NCLs play an important role in the design and synthesis of high-performance organic semiconductors.     

高性能双极性聚合物半导体材料与晶体管器件

有机聚合物半导体材料与晶体管器件是融合了化学、材料、半导体以及微电子等学科的前沿交叉研究方向.聚合物半导体材料分子是该领域研究的重要内容,其中双极性聚合物分子半导体材料,兼具了电子和空穴的双重载流子输运能力而受到学术界的广泛关注.本文总结了双极性聚合物半导体材料与器件的研究进展,重点介绍了我们在D-A型双极性聚合物分子半导体材料设计、加工技术与器件制备以及功能应用方面的研究工作,并论述了双极性聚合物分子半导体材料与器件研究过程中存在的科学问题及发展方向.     

Conjugated Polymers as Hole Transporting Materials for Solar Cells

In principle, conjugated polymers can work as electron donors and thus as low-cost p-type organic semiconductors to transport holes in photovoltaic devices. With the booming interests in high-efficiency and low-cost solar cells to tackle global climate change and energy shortage, hole transporting materials(HTMs) based on conjugated polymers have received increasing attention in the past decade. In this perspective, recent advances in HTMs for a range of photovoltaic devices including dye-sensitized solar cells(DSSCs), perovskite solar cells(PSCs),and silicon(Si)/organic heterojunction solar cells(HSCs) are summarized and perspectives on their future development are also presented.     

面向非富勒烯型有机光伏电池的聚合物给体材料设计

可溶液加工的有机光伏电池(OPV)是一种具有重要应用潜力的新型光伏技术。在OPV技术的发展过程中,富勒烯衍生物作为电子受体材料占据了相当长时间的统治地位,因此聚合物给体材料设计中对如何与富勒烯受体材料相互匹配考虑较多。最近几年来,基于聚合物给体和非富勒烯有机受体的OPV电池,简称为非富勒烯型NF-OPV,得到了十分快速的发展。在此类电池中,聚合物电子给体和非富勒烯型电子受体材料均起到了十分重要的作用。相比于较为经典的富勒烯型OPV,NF-OPV对聚合物给体的光电特性和聚集态结构提出了新的要求。因此,本文针对NF-OPV的特点,重点介绍NF-OPV对聚合物给体材料的吸收光谱、分子能级以及聚集态结构等特征的新要求,总结最近几年来的相关进展,并在此基础上进一步讨论聚合物电子给体材料面临的挑战和展望。     

Organic transistors in the new decade: Toward n-channel,printed, and stabilized devices

Significant progress has been made in designing organic semiconducting materials (OSCs) for the past few decades for organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Much attention has been paid to the development of p-channel OSCs, with less but highly significant progress on n-channel OSCs. In this review, we focus on the advances made with OFETs in the last few years to achieve high performance in n-channel modes, air stability, and solution processability, leading to printable active electronics. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2012     

Polymer strategies in perovskite solar cells

Since their emergence in 2013, perovskite solar cells have reached remarkable efficiencies exceeding 22%. Such rapid development of this technology has been possible, in part, due to the feed of ideas from previous research in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and light emitting diodes (OLEDs). This comprehensive review discusses the various polymer strategies that have led to the success of perovskite devices: from hole and electron transporting materials to polymer templating agents. This review further covers how these strategies potentially serve to overcome the two major obstacles that stand in the way of global implementation of perovskite solar cells; stability and J‐V curve hysteresis. Through reference and comparison of OPV, OLED, and perovskite technologies, we highlight the need for a unified approach to establish appropriate control systems and ageing protocols that are necessary to further research in this exciting direction. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017 , 55, 549–568     

Synthesis,characterization, and tunable semiconducting properties of aza-BODIPY derived polycyclic aromatic dyes

Azadipyrromethene derived polycyclic aromatic complexes(HBPs) containing thirteen fused rings have been synthesized,which show highly selective intense absorption in the near infrared spectrum(NIR) region with high photo-and thermo-stability.The periphery alkoxy and alkyl substituents greatly affect their molecular packing structures in thin films and their thin film transistor performances. With the simple changes of the alkyl substituents, the packing structures changed from discrete-grain with H-aggregation type absorption to lamellar packing with J-aggregation type absorption, and the semiconducting properties were modulated from p-type to interesting ambipolar-type in solution-processed organic field effect transistors(OFETs) with hole and electron mobilities reaching to 0.42 and 0.17 cm~2 V~(-1) s~(-1), respectively.     

基于咔唑-三唑的新型主体材料及天蓝光有机电致磷光器件

本研究针对蓝光主体材料相对缺乏的现状,利用有机电致磷光器件高效率的优势,选择1,2,4-三唑为电子传输功能基团、咔唑为空穴传输功能基团,设计、制备了新型主体材料oCzTz。通过邻位取代方式实现了分子立体构型高度扭曲,从而使分子的三重态能量达到3.01eV;oCzTz具有较高的热分解温度(353℃)和玻璃化转变温度(110℃);量化计算显示,分子的前线轨道在咔唑和三唑基团之间高度分离。以oCzTz为主体、以FIrpic为发光客体的天蓝光电致磷光器件启亮电压为3.4V,电流效率和功率效率分别高达37.2cd·A-1和29.2lm·W-1,是以TPBI为电子传输层的同类器件的最高效率之一。     

Functionalization of Pyrene To Prepare Luminescent Materials—Typical Examples of Synthetic Methodology

Pyrene‐based π‐conjugated materials are considered to be an ideal organic electro‐luminescence material for application in semiconductor devices, such as organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs) and organic photovoltaics (OPVs), and so forth. However, the great drawback of employing pyrene as an organic luminescence material is the formation of excimer emission, which quenches the efficiency at high concentration or in the solid‐state. Thus, in order to obtain highly efficient optical devices, scientists have devoted much effort to tuning the structure of pyrene derivatives in order to realize exploitable properties by employing two strategies, 1) introducing a variety of moieties at the pyrene core, and 2) exploring effective and convenient synthetic strategies to functionalize the pyrene core. Over the past decades, our group has mainly focused on synthetic methodologies for functionalization of the pyrene core; we have found that formylation/acetylation or bromination of pyrene can selectly lead to functionalization at K‐region by Lewis acid catalysis. Herein, this Minireview highlights the direct synthetic approaches (such as formylation, bromination, oxidation, and de‐tert‐butylation reactions, etc.) to functionalize the pyrene in order to advance research on luminescent materials for organic electronic applications. Further, this article demonstrates that the future direction of pyrene chemistry is asymmetric functionalization of pyrene for organic semiconductor applications and highlights some of the classical asymmetric pyrenes, as well as the latest breakthroughs. In addition, the photophysical properties of pyrene‐based molecules are briefly reviewed. To give a current overview of the development of pyrene chemistry, the review selectively covers some of the latest reports and concepts from the period covering late 2011 to the present day.     

Recent structural evolution of lactam- and imide-functionalized polymers applied in organic field-effect transistors and organic solar cells

Organic semiconductor materials, especially donor–acceptor (D–A) polymers, have been increasingly applied in organic optoelectronic devices, such as organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and organic solar cells (OSCs). Plenty of high-performance OFETs and OSCs have been achieved based on varieties of structurally modified D–A polymers. As the basic building block of D–A polymers, acceptor moieties have drawn much attention. Among the numerous types, lactam- and imide-functionalized electron-deficient building blocks have been widely investigated. In this review, the structural evolution of lactam- or imide-containing acceptors (for instance, diketopyrrolopyrrole, isoindigo, naphthalene diimide, and perylene diimide) is covered and their representative polymers applied in OFETs and OSCs are also discussed, with a focus on the effect of varied structurally modified acceptor moieties on the physicochemical and photoelectrical properties of polymers. Additionally, this review discusses the current issues that need to be settled down and the further development of new types of acceptors. It is hoped that this review could help design new electron-deficient building blocks, find a more valid method to modify already reported acceptor units, and achieve high-performance semiconductor materials eventually.

This review highlights the recent structural evolution of lactam- and imide-functionalized polymers applied in organic field-effect transistors and organic solar cells.     

Multifunctional Organic Emitters for High‐Performance and Low‐Cost Organic Light‐Emitting Didoes

Organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) have great potential applications in display and solid‐state lighting. Stability, cost and high operational efficiency are key issues governing the future commercial application of OLEDs. In this context, searching for multifunctional emitting materials with acceptable light‐emitting and charge‐transporting characteristics has gained increasing attention. For achieving high‐performance and low‐cost OLEDs, the suitable molecular design featured with different electronic and optical nature should be incorporated by combining the advantages of both functional units into the same molecules. This review highlights recent and current advances in developing bifunctional or multifunctional molecules, with the focus on structures, properties, and applications in OLEDs and organic laser.     

Thermal stability of organic electroluminescent devices fabricated using novel charge transporting materials

Novel hole and electron transporting materials have been synthesized to improve the thermal stability of organic electroluminescent (EL) devices. Molecular structures of such hole and electron transporting materials were designed based on triphenylamine (TPA) and oxadiazole (OXD) moieties, respectively. It has been found that the resulting materials have high glass transition temperatures (Tg) over 100°C and the vacuum-deposited thin films are significantly thermally stable. For the two-layer EL devices using the novel hole transporting materials and the typical emitting material, tris(8-quinolinolato) aluminum, the thermal stability has been clearly seen to depend on the Tg of the hole transporting material; excellent thermal stability was achieved. For the three-layer EL device using the novel electron transporting material, good emission efficiency and good stability were achieved. The electron transporting materials have been also applied to the polymeric system with polyvinylcarbazole matrix.     

Foldable semi-ladder polymers: novel aggregation behavior and high-performance solution-processed organic light-emitting transistors

A critical issue in developing high-performance organic light-emitting transistors (OLETs) is to balance the trade-off between charge transport and light emission in a semiconducting material. Although traditional materials for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) or organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) have shown modest performance in OLET devices, design strategies towards high-performance OLET materials and the crucial structure–performance relationship remain unclear. Our research effort in developing cross-conjugated weak acceptor-weak donor copolymers for luminescent properties lead us to an unintentional discovery that these copolymers form coiled foldamers with intramolecular H-aggregation, leading to their exceptional OLET properties. An impressive external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 6.9% in solution-processed multi-layer OLET devices was achieved.

Coiled foldamers with intramolecular H-aggregation in semi-ladder copolymers lead towards the highest EQE of 6.9% in solution-processed multi-layer OLETs.