Molecular Materials That Can Both Emit Light and Conduct Charges: Strategies and Perspectives

Molecular materials with concomitant light-emissive and semiconducting properties have received increasing attention in recent years. Such dual functional materials ensure the development of multifunctional devices (e.g., organic light-emitting transistors) and the emergence of new technologies. However, owing to the fact that intermolecular interactions and dense packing have opposite effects on photoluminescence and charge-carrier mobility, it is still rather challenging to rationally design high-performance molecular materials that exhibit both semiconducting and light-emissive properties. In fact, only a limited number of such dual functional materials are available, and most of their performances need to be further improved. In this concept article we discuss the design strategies and perspectives of this challenging area with the introduction of representative examples of such dual functional materials reported in recent years.