Research Progress of Monolayer Molecular Crystal Materials and Devices

doi:10.6023/A26050162

Abstract

The construction of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) serves as a crucial technical underpinning for realizing the core concept of molecular devices proposed in the 1970s. Early fabrication of molecular devices relied primarily on SAMs bonded to substrates via covalent linkages, with monolayer transistors being their typical representative. Nevertheless, random molecular disorder, grain boundaries and structural defects intrinsically generated during self-assembly introduce abundant interfacial charge traps, severely suppressing carrier hopping transport and greatly restricting the improvement of carrier mobility, photoelectric responsiveness and overall device performance. In recent years, monolayer molecular crystals (MMCs) have demonstrated excellent charge transport properties due to their combination of the ultra-thin thickness characteristic of SAMs and the long-range ordered molecular arrangement typical of single crystals. They have gradually emerged as highly attractive building blocks for constructing optoelectronic devices and studying the physics of charge transport, exhibiting significant structural advantages and broad application prospects in various types of high-performance optoelectronic devices. When organic semiconductors are precisely thinned down to monolayer thickness, their atomically flat exposed surfaces can act as an ideal research platform to intuitively evaluate the practical effects of multiple optimization strategies, including contact resistance reduction, photoresponse modulation, and gas sensing sensitivity improvement. This structural feature provides a crucial research carrier to deeply decipher the microscopic intrinsic charge transport mechanism inside organic semiconductors, helping researchers gain fundamental molecular-scale insights into carrier migration, trapping and recombination behaviors. This paper systematically reviews the evolutionary development of MMCs, summarizes their core structural and optoelectronic merits and typical application scenarios in high-performance organic devices, and comprehensively analyzes the intrinsic material limitations and environmental stability challenges that severely restrict their practical utilization. Corresponding targeted future research directions are also proposed, which are expected to provide valuable theoretical references and technical guidance, and further facilitate the in-depth exploration and scalable industrialized applications of high-performance monolayer molecular electronic materials.

Key words: self-assembled monolayers, monolayer molecular crystals, organic field-effect transistors, optoelectronic devices, sensor

Cite this article

Fan Yanwei, Jiang Lang. Research Progress of Monolayer Molecular Crystal Materials and Devices[J]. Acta Chimica Sinica, doi: 10.6023/A26050162.

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