Thermal stability of hybrid solar cells containing spiro-OMeTAD as hole-transporting layer is investigated. It is demonstrated that fully symmetrical spiro-OMeTAD is prone to crystallization, and growth of large crystalline domains in the hole-transporting layer is one of the causes of solar cell degradation at elevated temperatures, as crystallization of the material inside the pores or on the interface affects the contact between the absorber and the hole transport. Suppression of the crystal growth in the hole-transporting layer is demonstrated to be a viable tactic to achieve a significant increase in the solar cell resistance to thermal stress and improve the overall lifetime of the device. Findings described in this publication could be applicable to hybrid solar cell research as a number of well-performing architectures rely heavily upon doped spiro-OMeTAD as hole-transporting material.

The starburst carbazole derivative and phosphorescent bis-cyclometalated iridium(III) complex (IC2) were used for the preparation of multilayered “warm-white” organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), the emission spectra of which are modulated by the thickness of the phosphorescent layer. It was shown that the electroluminescence spectra of the fabricated devices are more extended into the visible region compared with the photoluminescence spectra of both component materials. The observed extension of the electroluminescence spectra can be assigned to the phosphorescent emission of the low-energy exciplex formed at the interface of the emissive layers. The quantum-chemical calculations performed by the DFT and (TD) DFT methods support the formation of the low-energy triplet exciplex at the interface of the IC2 layer and the neighboring layer of the starshaped carbazole-based compound, (4,4′,4″-tris[3-methylphenyl­(phenyl)amino] triphenylamine, tri(9-hexylcarbazol-3-yl)amine (THCA). Indeed, the triplet excited state of such bimolecular complex corresponds to intermolecular charge transfer between IC2 and THCA. The experimentally observed electrophosphorescence of these exciplexes is induced by strong spin–orbit coupling in the THCA:IC2 complexes due to the Ir(III) heavy atom effect. With dependence on the iridium(III)-complex film thickness (5–9 nm), the CIE coordinates changed from (0.41, 0.41) to (0.52, 0.47), corresponding to the warm white and orange color. The brightness of the fabricated OLEDs at the 15 V bias was in the range from 500 to 6000 cd/m2.

Aliphatic substituent effects on the HOMO energy levels and the ability to transport charge and form stable molecular glasses of systematically modified spiro-OMeTAD analogues were investigated.

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Star-shaped charge transporting materials with a triphenylamine core and a varying number of diphenylethenyl sidearms, obtained using a one step synthesis procedure from commercially available and relatively inexpensive starting materials and possessing comparatively high hole drift mobility (up to 0.017 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1)), are reported.