Development of n-type organic semiconductors for thin film transistors: a viewpoint of molecular design

The past ten years have witnessed great progress of n-type organic semiconductors (OSCs) for organic thin film transistors (OTFTs), while the device performance and ambient stability of n-type OSCs are still outmatched by their p-type counterparts. The pursuit of high-performance ambient-stable n-type OSCs for OTFTs is highly desirable for realizing robust, large-area and low-cost organic integrated circuits. In this feature article, we'll review the development of n-type OSCs for OTFTs from a viewpoint of molecular design, where more than nine molecular design strategies with >120 representative n-type OSCs are summarized and analyzed to give some valuable insights for this significant but challenging field.