On the phase behaviour of organic semiconductors

The physical organisation, from the molecular to the macroscale, of functional organic matter such as polymer semiconductors can profoundly affect the properties and features of the resulting architectures and their consequent performance when used as active layers in organic optoelectronic devices, including organic thin-film field-effect transistors, organic light-emitting diodes or organic photovoltaic cells. Here, we present a survey on the principles of structure development from the liquid phase of this interesting and broad class of materials with focus on how to manipulate their phase transformations and solid-state order to tailor and manipulate the final morphology towards technological and practical applications. Copyright (C) 2012 Society of Chemical Industry