Our interests in Materials Development / Materials Physics, revolves around the ability of nanoparticles to interact with each other, thereby altering specific signatures of the nanoparticle’s behavior.  When such interacting nanostructures are assembled spatially, their interactions can become cooperative - yielding macroscopic properties not seen in other materials.  Our groups examines the fundamental nature of cooperative behavior as well as the potential for using these materials in technology development.

Nanoparticles

The group uses chemical assembly, arc growth, laser ablation, templated growth, and CVD for the creation of a "zoo" of nanoparticles used in our studies.  The silver nanoparticle wires shown right are assembled through surfactant interactions to create more complex structures.

Another effort in the lab is the development of inorganic nanoparticle inks for use in solar applications.  Our focus has been on materials systems such as CZTS, but others are under consideration as well.  Ideally, such inks will make it possible to create dense photoactive films through spray and printing processes.

 

Polymers

Our polymer synthesis efforts revolve around small bandgap donor-acceptor systems not too different from the PCPDTBT and PBTTs now being used to achieve nearly 7% efficient solar cells. However, unlike the previous studies in these systems, our polymers are compatible with high molecular weight processing and allow "fine tuning" of the HOMO-LUMO levels to achieve Voc of 0.9V and bandgaps near 1.3 eV!

We are also working to couple these polymers with QDs for nonlinear effects.

A second class of polymers of interest is multicomponent homopolymers that allow for efficient white light emission. We have recently published the first in a series of papers on these polymers that promise to dramatically reduce the cost of white light OLEDs.

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