Seminar - Feb. 27, 2009 - Optoelectronic Macromolecules and Aligned Carbon Nanotubes: From Materials Syntheses to Device Applications
Feb/27/2009 11:21 Filed in: Seminars
Liming Dai
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
College of Engineering, University of Dayton, OH 45469, USA
Email: ldai@udayton.edu
February 27, 2009
3:00p.m. KL405
All are invited
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering
College of Engineering, University of Dayton, OH 45469, USA
Email: ldai@udayton.edu
February 27, 2009
3:00p.m. KL405
All are invited
Polymers have been traditionally used as electrically insulating materials: after all, metal wires are coated in plastics to insulate them. Various conjugated macromolecules with alternating single and double bonds can now be synthesized with unusual electrical and optical properties through the p-electron delocalization. Due to the molecular rigidity intrinsically associated with the delocalized conjugated structure, however, most unfunctionalized conjugated macromolecules are intractable (i.e. insoluble and/or infusible). A number of synthetic techniques have been devised to produce conjugated macromolecules with the processing advantages of plastics and the optoelectronic properties of inorganic semiconductors for flexible device applications, including organic light-emitting diodes and photovoltaic cells. Having conjugated all-carbon structures, carbon nanotubes also possess certain similar physicochemical characteristics as conjugated macromolecules, apart from their superior thermal and mechanical properties. While there is currently a large effort worldwide in developing nanocomposites from nonaligned carbon nanotubes and polymers, the combination of the unique physicochemical properties of aligned carbon nanotubes with comparable optoelectronic properties of appropriate conjugated macromolecules or other materials (e.g., DNA chains, metal nanoparticles) has yielded some interesting synergetic effects. In this talk, I will present some of our work in these exciting areas, along with various rational concepts for the design and development of multifunctional materials based on conjugated macromolecules and aligned carbon nanotubes for some device applications.
