Navigating the chalcogens: Sulfur substitution for n-type organic materials

Abstract

Chalcogen substitution is commonly used in the design of new organic semiconductors. Oxygen-sulfur substitution of rylene diimides, in particular, optimizes the optoelectronic and physical properties of this promising class of n-type materials, resulting in up to three orders of magnitude improvements in electron mobilities. Herein, we describe our recent efforts to synthesize, characterize, and investigate the photophysical, electronic, and solid-state behavior of rylene diimide-based small molecules and polymers with varying degrees of thionation.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Chalcogen
• sulfur
• thionation
• organic semiconductor
• organic materials
• n-type
• heavy atom substitution

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the NSERC of Canada, The Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), and the Ontario Research Fund (ORF).