Professor Michael Chabinyc of the University of California Santa Barbara will be the next featured lecturer in a series sponsored by COPE (Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics).

Abstract

Organic semiconductors provide the opportunity for low-cost fabrication of novel flexible thin film electronics. There has been significant progress in organic light emitting diodes (commercial products), solar cells (efficiencies of 10%), and thin film transistors (carrier mobilities > 1 cm2/Vs).  Despite these successes important questions remain unanswered about the connection between microstructure and optoelectronic properties. Our ability to determine charge transport pathways in organic materials has benefited from soft x-ray scattering and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. In both cases, long-range correlation of conjugated backbones in high carrier mobility polymers is observed providing a clear connection between morphology and charge transport. We have also discovered the existence of quadrites in donor-acceptor polymers suggesting a strategy for future materials design.  These advances suggest future avenues for new applications for organic semiconductors. The prospects of organic materials for application as thermoelectric materials will be discussed and recent work on electrical doping will be presented.

Biography

Professor Michael Chabinyc is Associate Chair of the Materials Department at the University of California. His research group studies fundamental properties of organic semiconducting materials and thin film inorganic semiconductors with a focus on materials useful for energy conversion. He has authored more than 110 papers and is inventor on more than 40 patents across a range of disciplines.  He is currently an editor of Journal of Materials Chemistry A.