Organic molecules in materials science articles within Nature Materials

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  • Article |

    Solvation dynamics at picosecond timescales critically affect charge transport in aqueous systems, but conflicting values have been reported for organic electrolytes. Lifetimes on the order of 1 ns for mixtures of organic polymer and lithium salt exhibiting ultraslow dynamics of solvation shell break-up are now reported.

    • Neel J. Shah
    • , Chao Fang
    •  & Nitash P. Balsara

  • News & Views |

    Photochromic molecular crystal arrays aligned in the micropores of a polymer membrane show high-performance actuation when stimulated by light. These soft composites might find applications in soft robotic devices.

    • Albert P. H. J. Schenning

  • Article |

    Photomechanical crystals are promising materials for converting photon energy into macroscopic work via reversible structural changes when exposed to light. Here the authors demonstrate highly ordered and compliant microcrystalline composites with a photomechanical performance exceeding that of single crystals.

    • Wenwen Xu
    • , David M. Sanchez
    •  & Ryan C. Hayward

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Extrinsic impurities may trap electrons or holes leading to imbalanced charge transport in wide band gap organic semiconductors. Here the authors propose a bottom-up design strategy by spatially separating HOMO and LUMO orbitals to avoid charge trapping, enhancing charge transport by orders of magnitude.

    • Oskar Sachnik
    • , Xiao Tan
    •  & Paul W. M. Blom

  • Article |

    Knowledge of band structure aids in understanding charge transport behaviour, yet it has proved impossible to measure the conduction (LUMO) band of organic semiconductors, in particular due to sample degradation by the electron beam. To address this, the authors developed and used AR-LEIPS to reveal the LUMO band dispersion of pentacene.

    • Haruki Sato
    • , Syed A. Abd. Rahman
    •  & Hiroyuki Yoshida

  • Article |

    A two-dimensional hole gas with high carrier density is confined at the interface between a solution-processed, single-crystalline organic semiconducting film and the electric double layer formed by an ion gel on top of the film.

    • Naotaka Kasuya
    • , Junto Tsurumi
    •  & Jun Takeya

  • News & Views |

    Nanoporous tripeptide crystals mechanically deform upon water evaporation due to the strengthening of the water hydrogen bonding inside the pores, which causes the distortion of the surrounding supramolecular network, creating stresses that extend through the crystal lattice and result in actuation.

    • Panče Naumov

  • News & Views |

    Non-fullerene acceptors have successfully overcome energy losses that were thought to be unavoidable in organic solar cells based on fullerene derivatives. However, it is now shown that they have limits too.

    • Justin M. Hodgkiss

  • Meeting Report |

    Scientists recently gathered in Asilomar, California, to discuss the latest developments in bioelectronics research. Interfaces between our body and advanced technologies for biomedical and other applications are becoming ever more diverse and effective.

    • Nicholas A. Melosh

  • News & Views |

    Nanovoids in organic semiconductors can serve as hosts for water inclusions that lead to trapping of electrons and holes.

    • David J. Yaron
    •  & Tomasz Kowalewski

  • Letter |

    Water clusters induce hole traps in organic semiconductor thin films. Detrimental effects of hole and electron traps on charge transport can be avoided by using materials with ionization energy and electron affinity within an energy window of 2.4 eV.

    • Naresh B. Kotadiya
    • , Anirban Mondal
    •  & Gert-Jan A. H. Wetzelaer

  • News & Views |

    Lewis acids are shown to react with water, forming a complex with Brønsted acidity able to effectively dope semiconducting polymers through backbone protonation and internal charge transfer.

    • Han Yan
    •  & Wei Ma

  • News & Views |

    Violating the Aufbau principle is shown to be a successful strategy to improve the stability of neutral organic radicals used in organic light-emitting diodes.

    • Sebastian Reineke

  • News & Views |

    Quantitative atomic-scale images of electric potentials at surfaces have now been obtained with a non-contact atomic force microscope by functionalizing the tip as a quantum dot sensor.

    • Mats Persson

  • Article |

    Porous molecular crystals are easy to fabricate but thought to have limited stability as they are bound by non-covalent interactions. Here, a porous crystal composed of C60 and phthalocyanine is demonstrated with stability to heat, acid, base and high pressures.

    • C. Grazia Bezzu
    • , Luke A. Burt
    •  & Neil B. McKeown

  • News & Views |

    Organic donor–acceptor heterojunctions can show efficient electroluminescence and at the same time generate charges under photovoltaic operation.

    • Wolfgang Brütting

  • News & Views |

    A single dopant molecule can exchange more than one charge with the hosting polymer semiconductor, doubling the maximum doping efficiency achievable.

    • Björn Lüssem

  • Editorial |

    As the electronic performance of organic semiconductors and other emergent materials improves, researchers call for attention in extracting charge mobility values from field-effect transistors.

  • Article |

    Proceeding from quantum mechanical predictions, a high shear piezoelectric constant of 178 pm V−1 was measured for the amino acid crystal beta glycine. This originates from the efficient packing of the molecules of the amino acid.

    • Sarah Guerin
    • , Aimee Stapleton
    •  & Damien Thompson

  • News & Views |

    Nanostructured films of organic semiconductors are now shown to enhance the Raman signal of probe molecules, paving the way to the realization of substrates for Raman spectroscopy with molecular selectivity.

    • John R. Lombardi

  • News & Views |

    Computer networks, trained with data from delayed-fluorescence materials that have been successfully used in organic light-emitting diodes, facilitate the high-speed prediction of good emitters for display and lighting applications.

    • Shuzo Hirata
    •  & Katsuyuki Shizu

  • News & Views |

    The detrimental effects of charge trapping in organic semiconductors can be minimized by diluting the electroactive polymer in an insulating host.

    • Jonathan Rivnay

  • News & Views |

    Coherent scattering of helium wave packets captures molecular motion with nanometre and picosecond resolution.

    • Florian Klappenberger

  • News & Views |

    The coupling of the electronic structure of organic semiconductors with the electromagnetic field in the vacuum by means of plasmonic antennas allows for a mobility boost.

    • Alberto Salleo

  • News & Views |

    Using a scanning tunnelling microscopy-based method it is now possible to get an atomistic-level description of the most probable binding and contact configuration for single-molecule electrical junctions.

    • Richard J. Nichols
    •  & Simon J. Higgins

  • News & Views |

    Effective limiting of the intensity of low-power light transmitted through organic thin films under ambient conditions has been achieved by proper design of donor–acceptor systems.

    • Anjun Qin
    •  & Ben Zhong Tang

  • News & Views |

    Although promising, the use of organic semiconductors has not yet revolutionized consumer electronics. Synthesis of high-performance materials, enhanced control of morphology and smart exploitation of unique photophysical phenomena are the way forward to overcome the technological hurdles of this field.

    • John E. Anthony

  • News & Views |

    The structural similarity of organic semiconductors to biological compounds suggests the use of these materials in biomedical applications, yet their implementation is not straightforward. Research in this area is growing fast, thanks to the combined efforts of the multidisciplinary bioelectronics community.

    • Guglielmo Lanzani

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