Organic Electronics: From Materials to Devices

Over the past sixty years, electronic devices based on inorganic semiconductors have dramatically changed the way we live and work.Now, at the beginning of the 21 st century, electronic devices made of organic materials have begun to play an important role in our lives due to the development and increased understanding of organic semiconductors.Strictly speaking, organic semiconductors are not new.As early as 1948, the term ''semiconductor'' was used to rationalize the observation of a thermally activated conductivity in metal-free and copper phthalocyanines.[1] Following that, electroluminescence was found in organic molecular crystals.[2,3] However, because of their high operating voltage, low light output, and poor stability, these early devices had no practical interest and did not attract much attention.Significant research interest in organic electronics was spurred by two important discoveries: the tetrathiafulvalene-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TTF-TCNQ) complex in 1973 and conducting polymers in 1977.The former was the first organic material to exhibit conductivities higher than 100 S/cm at room temperature with inverse temperature dependence down to ca 57 K.This was a momentous event since it showed that molecular solids consisting of carbon, hydrogen, nitro-[*]