Investigating the Causes of the Limited Electrical & Photo-Stability of Organic Optoelectronic and Photovoltaic Devices Fabricated by Wet-coating

在制造平板显示器、固态照明、太阳能电池和传感器时，通过喷墨打印、刀片涂层和旋涂等“湿”工艺进行低成本制造的前景，长期以来一直是在光电子和光伏设备中追求有机半导体的主要动机之一。尽管在过去二十年中取得了显著的进步，例如，有机发光器件(OLED)在显示器市场上日益占据主导地位，但这些新产品中的绝大多数仍然是通过传统的(且昂贵的)“干式”真空沉积方法制造的。一个主要原因是，即使使用相同的材料，湿法涂层工艺制造的器件与真空沉积工艺制造的器件相比，其稳定性也非常有限。较低的稳定性导致设备性能随着时间的推移而迅速下降，使设备不适合大多数商业应用。拟议的研究旨在揭示这一现象背后的因素，并开发控制这些因素的方法，从而使其能够使用这些工艺以低得多的成本生产具有较长使用寿命的有机光电和光伏设备，从而降低产品成本。这项研究将利用申请人开创的一些先进的实验技术，并将建立在他以前在这一领域的工作成果的基础上。六名研究生将参与这项研究。研究结果将对未来开发耐用但更便宜的有机发光设备和太阳能电池至关重要，这将与加拿大的工业合作伙伴合作进行。因此，它将在下一代光电子和能源采集设备具有巨大潜力的新兴技术方面为这些合作伙伴提供竞争优势。这项研究还将允许培训一批新的加拿大研究人员，他们将获得一项新兴技术方面的专业知识，这项技术有可能带来新产品和市场机会。

The promise of low-cost fabrication via "wet" processes, such as inkjet printing, blade-coating and spin-coating, in manufacturing flat panel displays, solid state lighting, solar cells and sensors, has long been one of the main motivations behind the pursuit of organic semiconductors in optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices. Despite the significant progress in the last two decades, evident, for example, in the increasing dominance of organic light emitting devices (OLED) in the display market, the vast majority of these new products are still fabricated by conventional (and costly) "dry" vacuum-deposition methods. A primary reason is the significantly limited stability of devices made by wet-coating processes in comparison to their vacuum-deposited counterparts even when the same materials are utilized. The lower stability leads to a rapid decrease in device performance with time, rendering the devices unsuitable for most commercial applications.     The proposed research aims to uncover the factors behind this phenomenon and to develop approaches to control them, thus make it produce organic optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices with long service life at a much lower cost using these processes, hence cheaper products. The research will utilize a number of advanced experimental techniques pioneered by the applicant and will build on findings from his previous work in this area. Six graduate students will participate in this research. The research results will be critical for future development of durable, yet cheaper, organic light emitting devices and solar cells, which will be pursued in collaboration with Canadian industrial partners. It will, therefore, provide those partners with a competitive edge in an emerging technology of tremendous potential for next generation optoelectronics and energy harvesting devices. The research will also allow training of a new "breed" of Canadian researchers who will acquire expertise in an emerging technology that has the potential to enable new products and market opportunities.