It has recently been demonstrated that light‐emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) can be designed to deliver strong emission with high efficiency when the charge transport is effectuated by a majority host and the emission is executed by a minority guest. A relevant question is then: should the guest be physically blended with or chemically incorporated into the host? A systematic study is presented that establishes that for near‐infrared‐(NIR‐) emitting LECs based on poly(indacenodithieno[3,2‐b]thiophene) (PIDTT) as the host and 4,7‐bis(4,4‐bis(2‐ethylhexyl)‐4H‐silolo[3,2‐b:4,5‐b′]dithiophen‐2‐yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]‐thiadiazole (SBS) as the guest the chemical‐incorporation approach is preferable. The host‐to‐guest energy transfer in LEC devices is highly efficient at a low guest concentration of 0.5%, whereas guest aggregation and ion redistribution during device operation severly inhibits this transfer in the physical‐blend devices. The chemical‐incorporation approach also results in a redshifted emission with a somewhat lowered photoluminescence quantum yield, but the LEC performance is nevertheless very good. Specifically, an NIR‐LEC device comprising a guest‐dilute (0.5 molar%) PIDTT‐SBS copolymer delivers highly stabile operation at a high radiance of 263 µW cm−2 (peak wavelength = 725 nm) and with an external quantum efficiency of 0.214%, which is close to the theoretical limit for this particular emitter and device geometry.

It has recently been demonstrated that light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) can be designed to deliver strong emission with high efficiency when the charge transport is effectuated by a majority host and the emission is executed by a minority guest. A relevant question is then: should the guest be physically blended with or chemically incorporated into the host? A systematic study is presented that establishes that for near-infrared-(NIR-) emitting LECs based on poly(indacenodithieno[3,2-b]thiophene) (PIDTT) as the host and 4,7-bis(4,4-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-4H-silolo[3,2-b:4,5-b ']dithiophen-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]-thiadiazole (SBS) as the guest the chemical-incorporation approach is preferable. The host-to-guest energy transfer in LEC devices is highly efficient at a low guest concentration of 0.5%, whereas guest aggregation and ion redistribution during device operation severly inhibits this transfer in the physical-blend devices. The chemical-incorporation approach also results in a redshifted emission with a somewhat lowered photoluminescence quantum yield, but the LEC performance is nevertheless very good. Specifically, an NIR-LEC device comprising a guest-dilute (0.5 molar%) PIDTT-SBS copolymer delivers highly stabile operation at a high radiance of 263 mu W cm(-2) (peak wavelength = 725 nm) and with an external quantum efficiency of 0.214%, which is close to the theoretical limit for this particular emitter and device geometry.

The development and application of a deep near-infrared (NIR) emitting star-shaped diketopyrrolopyrrole–Zn-porphyrin compound, ZnP(TDPP)4, is reported. The structure, conjugation, and planarity of the porphyrin compound were carefully tuned by molecular design, which resulted in a low-energy photoluminescence peak at 872 nm. The ZnP(TDPP)4 compound was employed as the emissive guest in light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs), which also comprised the conjugated polymer poly[1,3-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-5-(5-(6-methyl-4,8-bis(5-(tributylsilyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophen-2-yl)thiophen-2-yl)-7-(5-methylthiophen-2-yl)-4H,8H-benzo[1,2-c:4,5-c′]dithiophene-4,8-dione] (PBDTSi-BDD) as the majority host, an ionic liquid as the electrolyte, and two air-stabile electrodes. These systematically optimized host–guest LECs featured a peak electroluminescence at 900 nm, which was delivered at a significant radiance of 36 μW/cm2 and at a low drive voltage of 3.8 V. It is notable that this is the most redshifted NIR emission attained from an LEC device to date, and as such, this work introduces Zn porphyrins as a sustainable and tunable option for emerging emissive NIR applications.

A donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) molecule has been designed and synthesized for use as the electron donating material in solution-processed small-molecule organic solar cells (OSCs). The D-A-D molecule comprises a central electron-accepting (2Z,2'Z)-2,2'-(2,5-bis(octyloxy)-1,4-phenylene)bis(3-(thiophen-2-yl)acry lonitrile) (ZOPTAN) core, which is chemically connected to two peripheral and electron-donating triphenylamine (TPA) units. The ZOPTAN-TPA molecule features a low HOMO level of -5.2 eV and an optical energy gap of 2.1 eV. Champion OSCs based on a solution-processed and non-annealed active material blend of [6,6]-phenyl-C-61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) and ZOPTAN-TPA in a mass ratio of 2:1 exhibits a power conversion efficiency of 1.9% and a high open-circuit voltage of 1.0 V. 

Polymer light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) are inherently dependent on a suitable electrolyte for proper function. Here, we design and synthesize a series of alkyl carbonate-capped star-branched oligoether-based electrolytes with large electrochemical stability windows, facile ion release, and high compatibility with common light-emitting materials. LECs based on such designed electrolytes feature fast turn-on, a long operational lifetime of 1400 h at >100 cd m(-2) and a record-high power conversion efficiency of 18.1 lm W-1, when equipped with an external outcoupling film.

Molecular hydrogen can be generated renewably by water splitting with an artificial-leaf device, which essentially comprises two electrocatalyst electrodes immersed in water and powered by photovoltaics. Ideally, this device should operate efficiently and be fabricated with cost-efficient means using earth-abundant materials. Here, a lightweight electrocatalyst electrode, comprising large surface-area NiCo2O4 nanorods that are firmly anchored onto a carbon-paper current collector via a dense network of nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes is presented. This electrocatalyst electrode is bifunctional in that it can efficiently operate as both anode and cathode in the same alkaline solution, as quantified by a delivered current density of 10 mA cm(-2) at an overpotential of 400 mV for each of the oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions. By driving two such identical electrodes with a solution-processed thin-film perovskite photovoltaic assembly, a wired artificial-leaf device is obtained that features a Faradaic H-2 evolution efficiency of 100%, and a solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 6.2%. A detailed cost analysis is presented, which implies that the material-payback time of this device is of the order of 100 days.

We report on voltage-controlled electroluminescence (EL) over a broad range of colors from a two-luminophor (2L) light-emitting electrochemical cell (LEC), comprising a blend of a majority blue-emitting conjugated polymer (blue-CP), a minority red-emitting ionic transition metal complex (red-iTMC), and an ion-transporting compound as the active layer. The EL color is reversibly shifted from red, over orange, pink, and white, to blue by simply changing the applied voltage from 3 to 7 V. An analysis of our results suggests that the low concentration of immobile cations intrinsic to this particular device configuration controls the electron injection and thereby the EL color: at low voltage, electrons are selectively injected into the low-barrier minority red-iTMC, but with increasing voltage the injection into the high-barrier majority blue-CP is gradually improved.

Experimental findings and associated theoretical insights regarding the photochemical transformation of fullerenes are reported, which challenge the conventional wisdom in the field and point out a viable path towards improved fullerene-based electronic devices. It is shown that the efficiency of the photochemical monomer-to-dimer transformation of the fullerene [6,6]-phenyl-C-61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) is strongly dependent on the light intensity, and this is utilized to demonstrate that direct patterning of an electroactive PCBM film can be effectuated by sub-second UV-light exposure followed by development in a tuned developer solution. By straightforward analytical reasoning, it is demonstrated that the observed intensity-dependent monomer-to-dimer transformation dictates that a significant back-reaction to the ground state must be in effect, which presumably originates from the excited-triplet state. By a combination of numerical modeling and analytical argumentation, it is further shown that the final dimer formation must constitute a bi-excited reaction between two neighboring monomers photo-excited to the triplet state.

A complementary ring oscillator is realized by exposing a solution-processed single-layer organic film to area-selective laser-light exposure and solution development. The pristine film comprises a blend of two organic semiconductors: p-type poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) and n-type [6,6]-phenyl C-61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). The exposure transforms PCBM into an insoluble form, and the subsequent development selectively removes the non-exposed PCBM while leaving exposed PCBM and P3HT intact. The 5-step ring oscillator exhibits a frequency of 10 mHz, a power delay product of 2.0 mu J, and an energy delay product of 22 mu Js. Opportunities for performance improvements of the scalable fabrication technique are highlighted in an accompanying analysis.

We utilize UV light for the attainment of high-resolution, electronically active patterns in [6,6]-phenyl C₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) films. The patterns are created by directly exposing selected parts of a solution-cast PCBM film to UV light, and thereafter developing the film by immersing it in a tuned developer solution. We demonstrate that it is possible to attain complex, large-area PCBM structures with a smallest demonstrated-feature size of 1 μm by this method, and that the patterned PCBM material exhibits a high average electron mobility (1.2 × 10⁻² cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹) in transistor experiments. The employment of UV light for direct patterning of PCBM for electronic applications is attractive, because PCBM exhibits high absorption in the UV range, and no sacrificial photoresist is needed. The patterning is achieved through the transformation by UV light of the soluble PCBM monomers into insoluble dimers with retained attractive electronic properties.