Electroluminescence From a 1D Metal–Organic Chalcogenide Enabled by a Minute-Scale Facile Synthesis

Abstract

Metal–organic chalcogenides (MOCs) represent a unique materials platform promising to overcome the respective stability and structural integrity challenges of perovskites and functionalized dichalcogenides. However, their practical application is hindered by slow, multi-day synthesis methods that produce low-quality films. Here, these challenges are addressed with a vapor-assisted solution process that enables the ambient-pressure fabrication of 1D MOC, silver(I) 2-methyl ester benzenethiolate (AgSPhCOOMe), films within 5 min. The resulting dense, pinhole-free AgSPhCOOMe films exhibit a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 37.5%, with bright, broadband emission originating from self-trapped excitons due to the material's strong electron-phonon coupling. This scalable synthesis platform enables the successful integration of these MOCs into light-emitting diodes, demonstrating electroluminescence from this material class. By engineering the charge-transport layers to achieve balanced injection, a maximum external quantum efficiency of ≈0.1% is achieved. The in situ photoelectron spectroscopy analysis reveals that a significant electron injection barrier (0.62 eV) remains even in the optimized device, identifying this as the main efficiency bottleneck. Therefore, this work provides a foundational platform for MOC-based devices and a clear roadmap focused on new ligands and interface engineering to realize their full potential as high-performance, solution-processable emitters.