Abstract
Organic semiconductors (OSCs) are one of the most promising candidates for flexible, wearable and large-area electronics. However, the development of n-type OSCs has been severely held back due to the poor stability of their most candidates, that is, the intrinsically high reactivity of negatively charged polarons to oxygen and water. Here we demonstrate a general strategy based on vitamin C to stabilize n-type OSCs, remarkably improving the performance and stability of their device, for example, organic field-effect transistors. Vitamin C scavenges reactive oxygen species and inhibits their generation by sacrificial oxidation and non-sacrificial triplet quenching in a cascade process, which not only lastingly prevents molecular structure from oxidation damage but also passivates the latent electron traps to stabilize electron transport. This study presents a way to overcome the long-standing stability problem of n-type OSCs and devices.
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All the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its Supplementary Information, as well as from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (52225304 and 52073210 to L.L., 52203236 to X.C. and 52121002 to W.H.), National Key Research and Development Program (2018YFA0703200 to L.L.), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2023M742591 to Y. Huang) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. We thank Vacuum Interconnected Nanotech Workstation (Nano-X) for the technology support.
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W.H., L.L. and Y. Huang conceived the project. L.Y. prepared the samples and performed the electrical measurements, electrochemical analyses and spectroscopic characterizations, including steady absorption, steady and transient emission, and EPR characterizations. Y. Huang discovered the phenomenon of VC stabilizing organic transistors and conducted the mechanism studies on anti-oxidant and trap passivation. Y. Huang, L.Y. and X.C. designed all the experimental protocols. Y.G. and X.M. performed the ultrafast TA measurements and data analysis. Z.W., Y. Hu, J.H., C.H., J.L., Z.L., X.W., R.H. and Y.C. assisted in the experiments. Y. Huang, L.Y., L.L. and W.H. wrote the paper. L.L. and W.H. supervised this work. All authors contributed to data analysis and discussions.
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Nature Materials thanks Ying Diao and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Yuan, L., Huang, Y., Chen, X. et al. Improving both performance and stability of n-type organic semiconductors by vitamin C. Nat. Mater. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01933-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01933-w
