25 Years of Organic Materials for Electronics

In 1986, Professor Ching Tang, then Eastman Kodak Company, New York, USA, published a seminal paper describing organic photocells. This was followed in 1987 by a paper describing the first multilayer organic light emitting diode (OLED) device. The diode had a double‐layer structure of organic thin films deposited by vapor deposition. One film acted as an electron transporting layer, while the other as a separate hole transporter. Recombination of the electrons and holes in the middle of the layers resulted in light emission. The dual-layer structure overcame the limitations in efficiency of previous single-layer OLEDs and lowered the voltage required.

These innovations have resulted in today’s rapidly evolving field of organic electronics and Tang being widely recognized as one of the leaders in the organic electronic industry and in photovoltaics, culminating in him receiving the 2011 Wolf Prize.

To mark the 25th anniversary of this pioneering work by Tang, and to celebrate the progress made in the intervening years, the Israel Journal of Chemistry has published a special issue on Organic Materials for Electronics edited by Nir Tessler and Yoav Eichen. The issue includes details on the current state of the field, such as solar cells utilizing the well-known natural dye indigo, and use of nature’s expertise in creating organized structures (as in proteins) to induce order in organic electronic materials.

Ching Tang studied chemistry at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and gained his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Cornell University, New York, USA, in 1975. He joined the Eastman Kodak Company as a Research Scientist. Subsequent promotions ended in Tang’s position as Senior Research Associate in 1998 and him being named Distinguished Fellow of the Kodak Research Laboratories in 2003. In 2006 he took up his current role as the Doris Johns Cherry Professor at the University of Rochester, USA.

_{Image: Cake baked by Yana Vaynzof,
University of Cambridge, UK, author of the review
Recent Advances in Hybrid Optoelectronics,
for the cover of the Special Issue. Photographed
by Zhi Kuang Tan/© Wiley-VCH}