Photocatalytic doping of organic semiconductors

Wenlong Jin; Chi-Yuan Yang; Riccardo Pau; Qingqing Wang; Eelco K Tekelenburg; Han-Yan Wu; Ziang Wu; Sang Young Jeong; Federico Pitzalis; Tiefeng Liu; Qiao He; Qifan Li; Jun-Da Huang; Renee Kroon; Martin Heeney; Han Young Woo; Andrea Mura; Alessandro Motta; Antonio Facchetti; Mats Fahlman; Maria Antonietta Loi; Simone Fabiano

doi:10.1038/s41586-024-07400-5

Photocatalytic doping of organic semiconductors

Nature. 2024 May 15. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07400-5. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Wenlong Jin¹, Chi-Yuan Yang^{2

3}, Riccardo Pau^{4

5}, Qingqing Wang^{1

6}, Eelco K Tekelenburg⁴, Han-Yan Wu¹, Ziang Wu⁷, Sang Young Jeong⁷, Federico Pitzalis⁵, Tiefeng Liu^{1

8}, Qiao He⁹, Qifan Li¹, Jun-Da Huang¹, Renee Kroon¹, Martin Heeney⁹, Han Young Woo⁷, Andrea Mura⁵, Alessandro Motta¹⁰, Antonio Facchetti¹¹, Mats Fahlman¹, Maria Antonietta Loi⁴, Simone Fabiano^{12

13

14}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Department of Science and Technology, Linköping University, Norrköping, Sweden.
² Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Department of Science and Technology, Linköping University, Norrköping, Sweden. chi-yuan.yang@liu.se.
³ n-Ink AB, Norrköping, Sweden. chi-yuan.yang@liu.se.
⁴ Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Monserrato, Italy.
⁶ n-Ink AB, Norrköping, Sweden.
⁷ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
⁸ Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability, Department of Science and Technology, Linköping University, Norrköping, Sweden.
⁹ Department of Chemistry and Centre for Processable Electronics, Imperial College London, London, UK.
¹⁰ Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università di Roma "La Sapienza" and INSTM, UdR Roma, Rome, Italy.
¹¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
¹² Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Department of Science and Technology, Linköping University, Norrköping, Sweden. simone.fabiano@liu.se.
¹³ n-Ink AB, Norrköping, Sweden. simone.fabiano@liu.se.
¹⁴ Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability, Department of Science and Technology, Linköping University, Norrköping, Sweden. simone.fabiano@liu.se.

PMID: 38750361
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07400-5

Abstract

Chemical doping is an important approach to manipulating charge-carrier concentration and transport in organic semiconductors (OSCs)^1-3 and ultimately enhances device performance^4-7. However, conventional doping strategies often rely on the use of highly reactive (strong) dopants^8-10, which are consumed during the doping process. Achieving efficient doping with weak and/or widely accessible dopants under mild conditions remains a considerable challenge. Here, we report a previously undescribed concept for the photocatalytic doping of OSCs that uses air as a weak oxidant (p-dopant) and operates at room temperature. This is a general approach that can be applied to various OSCs and photocatalysts, yielding electrical conductivities that exceed 3,000 S cm^-1. We also demonstrate the successful photocatalytic reduction (n-doping) and simultaneous p-doping and n-doping of OSCs in which the organic salt used to maintain charge neutrality is the only chemical consumed. Our photocatalytic doping method offers great potential for advancing OSC doping and developing next-generation organic electronic devices.