Adduct-based p-doping of organic semiconductors

Electronic doping of organic semiconductors is essential for their usage in highly efficient optoelectronic devices. Although molecular and metal complex-based dopants have already enabled significant progress of devices based on organic semiconductors, there remains a need for clean, efficient and...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sakai, N, Warren, R, Zhang, F, Nayak, S, Liu, J, Kesava, SV, Lin, Y-H, Biswal, HS, Lin, X, Grovenor, C, Malinauskas, T, Basu, A, Anthopoulos, TD, Getautis, V, Kahn, A, Riede, M, Nayak, PK, Snaith, HJ
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Nature Research 2021
Description
Summary:Electronic doping of organic semiconductors is essential for their usage in highly efficient optoelectronic devices. Although molecular and metal complex-based dopants have already enabled significant progress of devices based on organic semiconductors, there remains a need for clean, efficient and low-cost dopants if a widespread transition towards larger-area organic electronic devices is to occur. Here we report dimethyl sulfoxide adducts as p-dopants that fulfil these conditions for a range of organic semiconductors. These adduct-based dopants are compatible with both solution and vapour-phase processing. We explore the doping mechanism and use the knowledge we gain to 'decouple' the dopants from the choice of counterion. We demonstrate that asymmetric p-doping is possible using solution processing routes, and demonstrate its use in metal halide perovskite solar cells, organic thin-film transistors and organic light-emitting diodes, which showcases the versatility of this doping approach.