The Effect of Organic Semiconductor Electron Affinity on Preventing Parasitic Oxidation Reactions Limiting Performance of n-Type Organic Electrochemical Transistors.

A key challenge in the development of organic mixed ionic-electronic conducting materials (OMIEC) for high performance electrochemical transistors is their stable performance in ambient. When operating in aqueous electrolyte, potential reactions of the electrochemically injected electrons with air and water could hinder their persistence, leading to a reduction in charge transport. Here, the impact of deepening the LUMO energy level of a series of electron-transporting semiconducting polymers is evaluated, and subsequently rendering the most common oxidation processes of electron polarons thermodynamically unfavorable, on organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) performance.

N-Type polymeric mixed conductors for all-in-one aqueous electrolyte gated photoelectrochemical transistors.

An organic photoelectrochemical transistor (OPECT) is an organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) that utilizes light to toggle between ON and OFF states. The current response to light and voltage fluxes in aqueous media renders the OPECT ideal for the development of next-generation bioelectronic devices, including light-assisted biosensors, light-controlled logic gates, and artificial photoreceptors. However, existing OPECT architectures are complex, often requiring photoactive nanostructures prepared through labor-intensive synthetic methods, and despite this complexity, their performance remains limited.

Effects of Processing-Induced Contamination on Organic Electronic Devices.

Organic semiconductors are a family of pi-conjugated compounds used in many applications, such as displays, bioelectronics, and thermoelectrics. However, their susceptibility to processing-induced contamination is not well understood. Here, it is shown that many organic electronic devices reported so far may have been unintentionally contaminated, thus affecting their performance, water uptake, and thin film properties.

Solution-processable polymers of intrinsic microporosity for gas-phase carbon dioxide photoreduction.

Four solution-processable, linear conjugated polymers of intrinsic porosity are synthesised and tested for gas phase carbon dioxide photoreduction. The polymers' photoreduction efficiency is investigated as a function of their porosity, optical properties, energy levels and photoluminescence. All polymers successfully form carbon monoxide as the main product, without the addition of metal co-catalysts.

Lactone Backbone Density in Rigid Electron-Deficient Semiconducting Polymers Enabling High n-type Organic Thermoelectric Performance.

Three lactone-based rigid semiconducting polymers were designed to overcome major limitations in the development of n-type organic thermoelectrics, namely electrical conductivity and air stability. Experimental and theoretical investigations demonstrated that increasing the lactone group density by increasing the benzene content from 0 % benzene (P-0), to 50 % (P-50), and 75 % (P-75) resulted in progressively larger electron affinities (up to 4.37 eV), suggesting a more favorable doping process, when employing (N-DMBI) as the dopant.

Regiochemistry-Driven Organic Electrochemical Transistor Performance Enhancement in Ethylene Glycol-Functionalized Polythiophenes.

Novel p-type semiconducting polymers that can facilitate ion penetration, and operate in accumulation mode are much desired in bioelectronics. Glycol side chains have proven to be an efficient method to increase bulk electrochemical doping and optimize aqueous swelling. One early polymer which exemplifies these design approaches was p(g2T-TT), employing a bithiophene--thienothiophene backbone with glycol side chains in the 3,3' positions of the bithiophene repeat unit.

n-Type Rigid Semiconducting Polymers Bearing Oligo(Ethylene Glycol) Side Chains for High-Performance Organic Electrochemical Transistors.

N-type conjugated polymers as the semiconducting component of organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are still undeveloped with respect to their p-type counterparts. Herein, we report two rigid n-type conjugated polymers bearing oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG) side chains, PgNaN and PgNgN, which demonstrated an essentially torsion-free π-conjugated backbone. The planarity and electron-deficient rigid structures enable the resulting polymers to achieve high electron mobility in an OECT device of up to the 10  cm  V  s range, with a deep-lying LUMO energy level lower than -4.

Acene Ring Size Optimization in Fused Lactam Polymers Enabling High n-Type Organic Thermoelectric Performance.

Three n-type fused lactam semiconducting polymers were synthesized for thermoelectric and transistor applications via a cheap, highly atom-efficient, and nontoxic transition-metal free aldol polycondensation. Energy level analysis of the three polymers demonstrated that reducing the central acene core size from two anthracenes (), to mixed naphthalene-anthracene (), and two naphthalene cores () resulted in progressively larger electron affinities, thereby suggesting an increasingly more favorable and efficient solution doping process when employing 4-(2,3-dihydro-1,3-dimethyl-1-benzimidazol-2-yl)-,-dimethylbenzenamine (N-DMBI) as the dopant. Meanwhile, organic field effect transistor (OFET) mobility data showed the and polymers to feature the highest charge carrier mobilities, further highlighting the benefits of aryl core contraction to the electronic performance of the materials.

Lewis Acid Guests in a {P W } Archetypal Polyoxotungstate Host: Enhanced Proton Conductivity via Metal-Oxo Cluster within Cluster Assemblies.

Complexes made by hosts that completely surround their guests provide a means to stabilize reactive chemical intermediates, transfer biologically active cargo to a diseased cell, and construct molecular-scale devices. By the virtue of inorganic host-guest self-assembly, nucleation processes in the cavity of a {P W }-archetype phosphotungstate has afforded a nanoscale 16-Al -32-oxo cluster and its Ga analogue that contain the largest number of Al /Ga ions yet found in polyoxometalate (POM) chemistry. Interestingly, the rich Lewis acid Al centers within the Lewis base POM support shows an exceptional proton conductivity of 4.