Polymer Electrolyte Dielectrics Enable Efficient Exciton-Polaron Quenching in Organic Semiconductors for Photostable Organic Transistors

Zhongwu Wang; Xiaosong Chen; Li Yu; Shujing Guo; Yongxu Hu; Yinan Huang; Shuguang Wang; Jiannan Qi; Cheng Han; Xiaonan Ma; Xiaotao Zhang; Huanli Dong; Wei Chen; Liqiang Li; Wenping Hu

doi:10.1021/acsami.1c23994

Polymer Electrolyte Dielectrics Enable Efficient Exciton-Polaron Quenching in Organic Semiconductors for Photostable Organic Transistors

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022 Mar 23;14(11):13584-13592. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c23994. Epub 2022 Mar 14.

Authors

Zhongwu Wang^{1

2}, Xiaosong Chen¹, Li Yu¹, Shujing Guo¹, Yongxu Hu¹, Yinan Huang¹, Shuguang Wang¹, Jiannan Qi¹, Cheng Han², Xiaonan Ma³, Xiaotao Zhang¹, Huanli Dong⁴, Wei Chen⁵, Liqiang Li^{1

6}, Wenping Hu^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences, Department of Chemistry, Institute of Molecular Aggregation Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
² SZU-NUS Collaborative Innovation Center for Optoelectronic Science & Technology, International Collaborative Laboratory of 2D Materials for Optoelectronics Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, Institute of Microscale Optoelectronics, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
³ Institute of Molecular Plus, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
⁴ Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
⁶ Joint School of National University of Singapore and Tianjin University, International Campus of Tianjin University, Fuzhou 350207, China.

PMID: 35286804
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c23994

Abstract

The photoelectric response of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) will cause severe photoelectric interference, which hinders the applications of OFETs in the light environment. It is highly challenging to relieve this problem because of the high photosensitivity of most organic semiconductors. Here, we propose an efficient "exciton-polaron quenching" strategy to suppress the photoelectric response and thus construct highly photostable OFETs by utilizing a polymer electrolyte dielectric─poly(acrylic acid) (PAA). This dielectric produces high-density polarons in organic semiconductors under a gate electric field that quench the photogenerated excitons with high efficiency (∼70%). As a result, the OFETs with PAA dielectric exhibit unprecedented photostability against strong light irradiation up to 214 mW/cm², which far surpasses the reported values and solar irradiance value (∼138 mW/cm²). The strategy shows high universality in OFETs with different OSCs and electrolytes. As a demonstration, the photostable OFET can stably drive an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) under light irradiation. This work presents an efficient exciton modulation strategy in OSC and proves a high potential in practical applications.

Keywords: electrolyte dielectric; exciton-polaron quenching; organic transistors; photoelectric interference; photostability.