Organic Semiconductor Nanowires: Synthesis, Photophysics, and Applications

Abstract

Organic semiconductor nanowires have attracted great interest recently as they are promising building blocks for various electronic and optoelectronic applications such as light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors, photoswitches, sensors, solar cells, nanoscale lasers, optical waveguides, and memory devices. In particular, organic single-crystalline nanowires typically show better performance compared with their bulk counterparts due to the lack of grain boundaries that act as an energetic barrier for charge transport. Their one-dimensional, intrinsically defect-free and highly ordered nature allows a deeper understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of charge generation and transport, while enabling a bottom-up fabrication of optoelectronic nanodevices. Herein, I would like to report the synthetic methodologies, photophysics, charge-transport behaviors and optoelectronic applications of organic semiconductor nanowires, mainly focusing on n-channel molecular semiconductors.