Themed collection Celebrating Tobin Marks’ 75th Birthday

Guest editors Antonio Facchetti, Hui Huang, He Yan and Rocio Ponce Ortiz introduce this Journal of Materials Chemistry C issue commemorating the 75th birthday of Professor Tobin Marks.

This highlight reviews the recent studies on organic passivation for the stability enhancement of oxide thin-film transistors.

Unlocking deformability in organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) is critical for their integration into wearable or implantable electronics, necessitating technological advances at the component and transistor levels.

In view of developing multifunctional OLETs, 2,3-thienoimide-ended oligothiophenes are proposed as ideal candidates to effectively ensure good ambipolar field-effect mobility, self-assembly capability and high luminescence in solid state.

This review presents the recent advances of optoelectronic functional fibers in material selection, fabrication, as well as applications in energy conversion, photoelectric sensing, and logical response.

The review reports the recent progress in organic second-order and third-order nonlinear optical materials in the Jen group.

A review on the recent efforts to select green solvents for processing organic semiconductors for thin film transistors (TFT) and organic photovoltaics (OPV) applications. A guide for the safe fabrication of high-performance devices.

In this review, we give a timely summary of the current progress of molecular doped organic semiconductor single crystals in terms of material selection, crystal growth, resulting properties and device applications.

The multimaterials printing procedure of solenoidal inductor with a magnetic core.

The poor operational stability remains a key challenge in perovskite light-emitting diodes. In this work, we investigate the detrimental effects of thermal-induced interface degradation on the device performance of perovskite light-emitting diodes.

Thin-films derived from solution-processed graphene inks that use ethyl cellulose as a polymer stabilizer show mixed metallic-semiconducting charge transport with high charge carrier mobility.

A novel multicore-shell direct ink writing is proposed to fabricate stretchable fiber-shaped ACEL devices with tunable architectures and light emissions.

This study introduces three different molecular dopants for near-infrared organic photodetectors. The doped organic photodetectors exhibit low dark current, high detectivity and good environmental stability, and can be used for pulse rate monitoring.

To accelerate materials discovery, computational methods such as inverse materials design, are used to design UV-absorbing coronene based derivatives that, following synthesis achieve high open-circuit voltages and visible transparencies.

Two PDI tetramers with a central tetrathienylethene core were investigated as non-fullerene acceptors in organic photovoltaics and the dramatic differences in their optical absorption spectra were rationalised on the basis of DFT calculations.

This work exposes the importance of testing a polymers active layer thickness tolerance as small modifications to a polymers structure can radically change its ability to stack/pack in the BHJ which is reflected in thick active layer OSCs.

Solution-processable dicyanomethylene end-capped bithiophene quinoidal organic semiconductors with four inserted thioalkyl side chains exhibit an electron mobility of 0.18 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ with excellent ambient and operational stability.

Chemical doping of bicarbazole redox polymer films leads to plateau-conductivities up to 2 × 10⁻² S cm⁻¹. The stability due to crosslinking and the transparency make them e.g. suitable as hole-transport layers in organic opto-electronic devices.

Introduction of chlorine in the conjugated side chains significantly improves open-circuit voltage and power conversion efficiency, benefiting from a lower HOMO energy level, well-balanced charge transport and superior nanoscale morphology.

Microscopic mechanisms of the formation of H defects and their role in passivation of under-coordinated atoms, short- and long-range structural transformations, and the resulting electronic properties of amorphous In–Ga–O with In : Ga = 6 : 4 are investigated using computationally-intensive ab initio molecular dynamics simulations and accurate density-functional calculations.

The employment of binary blends comprising the insulating polymer HDPE in combination with hole- and electron-transporting organic semiconductors enables fabrication of OTFTs of notably improved device stability and performance.

A total of 27 different 2D truxene-based polymers were theoretically investigated. Our results provide interesting guidelines to design novel 2D materials with applications ranging from sensing to photocatalysis or electronics.

Ultraviolet light causes bis(phenethylammonium) tetrachlorocuprate to change color from yellow to brown, which is reversible by exposure to air.

The modulation of the deposition speed in blends of diF-TES-ADT and polystyrene controls the formation of either the low-temperature or the high-temperature polymorph.

We demonstrate a series of direct arylation polycondensed conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) for application in universal and thickness-insensitive electron transport materials (ETMs) of highly efficient polymer solar cells (PSCs).

Blade-coating is used to fabricate high hole mobility organic transistors based on a p-doped small-molecule:polymer blend semiconductor.

A large-area processable ink-jet-printed poly(3-hexylthiophene) electrolyte-gated field-effect transistor, designed for bioelectronic applications, is proven to be stable for one week of continuous operation.

The tortuosity of a bulk heterojunction domain network causes electric-field-induced dispersion that can significantly prolong the mobility relaxation dynamics relative to a homogenous neat material.

Post-treatment effects on open circuit voltages and device performances in a novel high efficiency all-small-molecule OSC were deeply investigated.

A unique molecular library of functionalized low LUMO BTBT semiconductors was developed and studied in detail to reveal key design principles for electron transport in DAcTTs.

Diversified occupants at the A-site (Cs, Rb) will improve the intrinsic properties of the FAMA-based perovskite single crystals, while additional interstitials such as K will degrade the materials properties.

Low boiling-point and low-cost 1,4-difluorobenzene was used as solvent additive to optimize the power conversion efficiency and stability of organic solar cells.

Crumpable electronics based on printed polymer semiconductors is demonstrated, with the additional features of being fully organic and semi-transparent.

A series of new metal-free organic dyes based on 3,3′-dithioalkyl-2,2′-bithiophene (SBT) organic chromophores was synthesized for use in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs).

Exciton evolution with PC₆₁BM loading in small molecule BHJ layers revealed by GIWAXS and ultrafast optical transient absorption spectroscopy.

A series of new quinoidal cyclopentadithiophene-based vacuum-processable n-type semiconductors were synthesized and characterized, followed by their successful application in organic thin-film transistors and initial studies in organic solar cells.

N-type semiconducting polymers have been recently utilized in thermoelectric devices, however they have typically exhibited low electrical conductivities and poor device stability, in contrast to p-type semiconductors, which have been much higher performing.

In this work, a series of naphthalimide fused thienopyrazine derivatives was designed in order to efficiently modulate both the energy and topology of the frontier molecular orbitals involved in the charge transport mechanism.

Electric-field driven chemical doping modulation in a solution-processed organic semiconductor and solid-state ionic liquid blend in response to volatile organic compounds provides an exciting opportunity to facilitate low-power chemical gas sensors.

Large-area printed low-voltage organic thin film transistors are fabricated with the bar-coating of minimal solutions of cross-linked dielectric and organic semiconductor.

A highly sensitive colorimetric and fluorometric sensor comprising self-assembled polydiacetylene (PDA) liposomes for the measurement of cysteamine concentration.

A new type of Stark effect was observed in the electronic transmission as a function of voltage bias for vacancy-specific boron nanoflakes.

Our work highlights the development of eco-PSCs based on newly developed C₇₀-based water/alcohol soluble fullerene with enhanced light absorption, aggregation properties and highly solvent composition-tolerant eco-friendly solvent processes.

Films of consisting of a rigid extended aromatic surface and long alkyl chains to undergo structural rearrangement at room temperature. The slow timescale allows us to monitor the relationship of structure and photophysical behavior.

Charge transfer complex (CPX) formation at a donor–acceptor interface reduces the amount of Fermi-level pinning induced interfacial charge transfer.

This work investigates a series of interfacial materials to understand how charge-blocking layers facilitate trap-assisted photomultiplication in organic infrared detectors.

Electrodes with good mechanical and electrical properties serve as the key component for realizing high-performance flexible electronics.

A top-contact, sub-5 μm resolution OFET is realized using inkjet printed electrodes with different F4-TCNQ doping concentrations.

Small-molecule electrolytes were designed and synthesized as the cathode interlayer in inverted polymer solar cells.

Two non-fullerene small molecule acceptors, NT-4F and NT-4Cl, were designed and synthesized. Power conversion efficiencies of 11.44% and 14.55% were achieved for NT-4Cl-based binary and ternary devices, respectively.

A new narrow bandgap non-fullerene electron acceptor was designed, synthesized, and characterized for near-infrared organic photovoltaics.

Methoxyl group was introduced to obtain isomer-free methoxylation quinoidal bithiophene building block. Four polymers displayed narrow bandgap (<1.20 eV) and hole mobility of up to 2.70 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹.

Four fused-ring electron acceptors composed of the same core and end groups without or with hexyloxyl groups on the core and/or phenyl side chains are compared to systematically study the effects of alkoxylation position on the molecular packing, optical, electronic, and photovoltaic properties of the nonfullerene acceptors.

Effects of the chalcogen atoms in [1]benzochalcogenopheno[3,2-b][1]benzochalcogenophenes (BXBXs), the key π-conjugated core structures in the development of superior organic semiconductors, are investigated.

Side chain engineering of fused bithiophene imide oligomers yields a new series of random copolymers with tunable polymer chain packing and film morphology. When applied in all-polymer solar cells, an 8.32% efficiency is obtained.