Transition metal-catalysed molecular n-doping of organic semiconductors
- Journal:
- Nature
- Published:
- DOI:
- 10.1038/s41586-021-03942-0
- Affiliations:
- 6
- Authors:
- 17
Research Highlight
Catalysing the addition of electrons to organic semiconductors
© Yuichiro Chino/Moment/Getty Images
A novel way to add electrons to organic semiconductors may one day mean better organic-based electronic devices such as solar cells and LEDs, which are cheaper and more flexible than those based on silicon.
Before organic semiconductors can be used in devices, they need to have electrons added to them by a process called doping, but it is difficult to find dopants that are stable in air and have a high doping efficiency and high reducing power.
Now, a team led by researchers from SUSTech in Shenzhen, China, has devised a way to add electrons to organic semiconductors that meets all three conditions.
They demonstrated that air-stable precursor molecular dopants can be used to catalyse the electron doping of organic semiconductors.
The researchers consider that this approach will help realize enhanced semiconductor devices.
References
- Nature 599, 67–73 (2021). doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03942-0