Lighting-up nanocarbons through hybridization: Optoelectronic properties and perspectives

In recent years, a plethora of material systems have been designed and prepared to increase the performance of light harvesting and light-emitting technologies, and to develop new and attractive applications. Limitations of state-of-the-art devices based on organics (both conjugated polymers or small molecules/oligomers) derive largely from material stability issues after prolonged operation. This challenge could be tackled by leveraging the enhanced stability of carbon nanostructures (CNSs, including carbon nanotubes and the large family of graphene-based materials) in carefully designed nano-hybrid or nano-composite architectures to be integrated within photo-active layers, paving the way to the exploitation of these materials in contexts in which their potential has not been yet fully revealed. In this review, we discuss the theoretical and experimental background behind CNSs hybridization with other materials for the establishment of novel optoelectronic properties and provide an overview of the existing examples in the literature that allow to forecast interesting future perspectives for use in real devices.