Understanding the intricacies of charge-carrier transport in organic semiconductors, and more recently organic-inorganic hybrid semiconductors remains a significant challenge. Despite the growing number of applications of these materials, being as charge-carrier transport interlayers in optoelectronic devices, active materials in thermoelectric generators, electrode or binder materials in batteries, to name a few, the design of high-performing semiconductors continues to be difficult due to limited knowledge related to the intricate interplay among molecular and polymer structure, dopant chemistry, dopant-host interactions, and semiconductor morphology. This symposium will deliver an interdisciplinary platform to discuss the most recent advances in molecular and material design and charge-carrier transport theory to address the most pressing challenges with regard to material engineering to enable the development of next-generation semiconducting materials and emerging device technologies. Examples include intrinsic conductors such as open-shell polymers and organo-metallic coordination polymers demonstrating unprecedented charge-carrier transport properties (>1000 S cm^-1), thereby pushing the boundaries of current transport models and theory. Novel dopant and host material design approaches to enhance dopant miscibility and improve molecular doping through innovative processing such as ion exchange, Lewis acid doping, thermally activated doping and double doping to name a few. Advances in model and theory development will be deeply integrated into materials and characterization-focused sessions to demonstrate the critical roles of the synthesis-processing-characterization-modeling-application feedback loops that are required to move beyond trial-and-error approaches to materials design and discovery.

electronic structure organic organometallic polymer thermoelectricity