Topic: Emerging Guidelines for the Design of Novel Organic Semiconductors
Speaker: Prof. Guillermo C. Bazan, University of California, Santa Barbara
Time: 10:00, January 5, 2017
Venue: Room 502, Building of State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Wushan Campus
Abstract:
This presentation will cover some emerging ideas in our laboratories for designing organic semiconductors with properties that make them relevant for established optoelectronic devices and that are opening up opportunities within the context of bioelectrochemical systems. The topics to discuss include the following: 
(a) Regioregular conjugated polymers.  These materials are relevant with respect to high mobility organic field effect transistors and the fabrication of low energy loss, easy to fabricate transparent solar cells.  We will examine complications of ambipolar charge carrier transport and how this property can be managed through either specific molecular design or the incorporation of hole- or electron-specific traps that direct the choice of transport channel.  The relationship between energy loss in solar cells and the impact of a homogenous molecular structure under conditions of limited driving force for electron transfer will be also examined.
(b) A relatively new class of anionic narrow bandgap conjugated polyelectrolytes (NBGCPE) that is interesting because the materials are easily doped in water.  The choice of pendant ionic group and the ionization potential of the internal repeat units within the backbone are critical for favoring the doped state in aqueous media.  These NBGCPEs are excellent dispersants for single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT).  One finds that it is possible to obtain predominantly either n- or p-transport in the NBGCPE/SWCNT blends by the choice of the charged group in the pendant group, while keeping the backbone structure the same.    These blends can be therefore used to fabricate thermoelectric devices.  Finally, because of their miscibility in aqueous media it is possible to integrate these materials into microbial fuel cells and demonstrate that they are capable of accepting electrons from exoelectrogenic bacteria under anaerobic conditions.
Biography:
Professor Bazan obtained his B.Sc. (Honors) from the University of Ottawa and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the advisement of Professor Richard R. Schrock. After working at the California Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral fellow with advisor Professor John E. Bercaw, he started his academic career at the University of Rochester in 1992. In 1998, Gui became a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A year later he joined the faculty of the Department of Materials (Engineering) and in June 2000, he became the Director of the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids.
Honors:
Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, 2014
Top 50 Material Scientists by Citation and Impact, Thompson Reuters, 2011
Macromolecules Advisory Board, 2009
Professor of the Chang Jiang Scholars Professor, 2009
Advanced Materials Editorial Advisory Board, 2008
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2007
American Chemical Society Cope Scholar Award, 2006
Bessel Award, Humboldt Foundation, 2005
NSF Special Creativity Award, 2003
Union Carbide Innovation Award, 1998, 1999
Closs Lecturer, University of Chicago, 1997
Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, 1996-1998
Sloan Research Fellow Award, 1996-1998
NSF CAREER Award, 1995-1998
Dreyfus New Faculty Award, 1992-1993
NSERCC Postdoctoral Fellowship, November 1990-May 1992
NSERCC 1967 Science and Engineering Scholarship, September 1986-June 1990