Impure sexithiophene: The reality of supplied materials for organic electronic applications

Organic electronics are particularly susceptible to minor impurities within a materials sample because any amount of impurity can alter device performance. Here we outline and explore a specific example of how the sudden decrease in our organic photovoltaic (OPV) performance was attributed to purchased material with a minor impurity not acknowledged by an external supplier. Had there been no standard procedure in place to evaluate a new batch of materials, the issue could have gone unchecked and inadvertently affected other results in the future. In this specific example, we confirmed the presence of impurities in an alpha-sexithiophene sample purchased from a supplier that drastically affected baseline device data. Our goal is to bring awareness to the issue, and emphasise the importance of verifying the purity of any materials purchased for organic electronics by establishing a baseline which would flag any major fabrication changes or the presence of impurities. We hope these analogous issues and methodologies are reported more in pursuit of advancing the pace of research and development.