Adduct-based p-doping of organic semiconductors

Journal article

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.

Authors: Sakai, N; Warren, R; Zhang, F; Nayak, S; Liu, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Journal: Nature Materials
• Volume: 20
• Pages: 1248-1254
• Publication date: 2021-04-22
• Acceptance date: 2021-03-09
• DOI: 10.1038/s41563-021-00980-x
• EISSN: 1476-4660
• ISSN: 1476-1122
• Pmid: 33888905
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR