Event Details

Join the Chemistry Department for a Royal Society of Chemistry lecture with Thuc-Quyen Nguyen from the University of California Santa Barbara

Speaker

Thuc-Quyen Nguyen

Center for Polymers and Organic Solids, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara

Abstract

According to International Energy Outlook 2021 published by Energy Information Administration (EIA), global energy consumption will be double by 2050. Therefore, finding alternative energy sources is an urgent and pressing problem. Sunlight is by far the most abundant source of energy on Earth and, if harvested, can address the energy demands in the future. Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) potentially can offer low cost, large area, flexible, light-weight, clean, and quiet energy sources for indoor and outdoor applications such as energy-efficient buildings and greenhouses. OPVs are fabricated from organic semiconductors (OSCs), a class of carbon-based materials comprising of alternate single and double bonds (conjugated pi-bonds). OSCs can be synthesized to have band gaps from the UV to the near infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. OSCs are attractive due to their unique properties: light weight, mechanical flexibility, low cost, low-temperature processing, and simple fabrication methods such as roll-to-roll coating, spray coating or ink-jet printing into desired size and shape. Such materials are expected to form the basis of new emerging technologies — called the Organic Electronics. OSCs have been implement in commercial products such as displays and lightings and have potential applications in transistors, OPVs, photodetectors, thermoelectrics, ratchets, sensors, neuromorphic computing, and bioelectronics. In this talk, I will discuss the role of OPVs in transition to renewable energy to overcome the climate change.