Organic Semiconducting & Light Harvesting Materials

Synthesis, design and applications of conjugated polymers and related small molecules for incorporation into emerging optoelectronic technologies such as light-emitting diodes, thin film transistors, electrochemical cells and photovoltaic devices.

Traditionally, the properties of semiconductors have been associated with inorganic solids; e.g., Si, Ge, GaAs, etc. In this branch of CPOS research, the goal is to unleash the enormous parameter space of organic molecules to the field of electronics, particularly semiconductor applications. This requires research in synthetic organic chemistry, nanomaterials, condensed matter physics, polymer science and electrical engineering. As a result, CPOS is tightly connected with the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Materials Engineering, Physics and the Materials Research Laboratory.

Research in this subgroup of CPOS has led to fundamental discoveries in organic photovoltaics and organic light-emitting devices. The ultimate goal is to develop the fundamentals for the commercial implementation of pure white light emission polymer light emitting diodes, organic transistors, and flexible, transparent plastic solar cells.