WFU Physics Colloquium

TITLE: Developing Theory-Driven Approaches to Design Organic Semiconducting Materials

SPEAKER: Professor Chad Risko,

TIME: Wednesday April 12, 2017 at 4:00 PM

PLACE: Room 101 Olin Physical Laboratory

Semiconducting materials derived from organic, π-conjugated molecules or polymers have drawn the attention of materials chemists for decades because of the potential to modulate material (opto)electronic properties through well-established synthetic chemistry methods. Unfortunately, materials design remains highly Edisonian, due to limited knowledge among the intimate relationships that connect chemical composition and molecular architecture, material processing, and the solid-state packing arrangements that define the underlying physicochemical processes that determine material performance. We seek to address these connections through the development and application of multiscale, theoretical materials chemistry approaches that build upon principles from organic and physical chemistry, condensed matter physics, and materials science. In this presentation, we will focus on how these models can reveal the striking influence of seemingly modest changes in chemical structure on the solid-state packing of organic semiconducting active layers and resulting characteristics of importance to charge-carrier transport. The chemical insight developed through these investigations is beginning to refine and offer novel design paradigms essential to the development of next generation organic semiconducting active layers, and is opening new pathways for in silico materials development.