APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY:
Organic materials for
- Field effect transistors
- Organic solar cells
- Printable electronics
- Sensors
- Telecommunications equipment
- OLEDs for displays and lighting
- Data storage
- Lasers
ADVANTAGES:
- Excellent charge transport properties
- Great absorptivity with the Vis-NIR spectrum range
- Tunable properties
- Very stable under ambient conditions
- Good solubility for easy processing
- Easily synthesized from inexpensive starting materials; high yields
ABSTRACT:
Researchers at Berkeley Lab have developed a discotic electron donor and a potent electron acceptor based on naturally occurring indigo. These building blocks can be used to build a diverse array of new, organic semiconductors.
Electron Donor – TAC
Thienoazacoronene (TAC) derivatives, yielded through a concise synthetic route at Berkeley Lab, show a high degree of self-organization in solution, single crystals, bulk, and spuncast thin films, enabling their incorporation into electronic devices. Thin film field-effect transistors of the TACs exhibited mobilities up to 0.028 cm2/VS – among the top field effect mobilities for solution-processed discotic materials. This underscores TAC’s great potential as a promising electron donor for the development of high performance organic electronic materials.
Regioselective functionalization of the TAC core enables its incorporation into a conjugated polymer used as the donor material in organic photovoltaic devices that show an open circuit voltage of 0.89V, which is attributed to the low lying, highest occupied molecular orbital energy level of TAC. More details are available in the researchers’ publication here and linked below.
Electron Acceptor – BAI
A versatile new electron acceptor unit, termed BAI, has been synthesized in a one-pot reaction from readily available indigo dye – an inexpensive starting material. First generation BAI and derivatives represent new and promising electron accepting blocks offering access to a large number of donor-acceptor low bandgap small molecules and polymers.
The materials exhibit tunable optoelectronic properties, thermally responsive self-assembly behavior, and excellent carrier transport mobilities. For example, one of the polymers has a very high hole transporting mobility of 1.7 cm2/VS, enabling practical use of this class of materials for flexible electronics applications.
STATUS: Issued U. S. Patents #9,196,846and #9,315,671 (2014-080) and patent pending. Available for licensing or collaborative research.
DEVELOPMENT STAGE: Proven principle. The Berkeley Lab researchers are optimizing the materials’ properties.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
BAI publication: pending
SEE THESE OTHER BERKELEY LAB TECHNOLOGIES IN THIS FIELD:
Reliable, High Performance Transistors on Flexible Substrates, IB-3252
REFERENCE NUMBER: 2013-138, 2014-080