Chemistry Weekly Seminar - Nicholas Randell
PhD student Nicholas Randell from the Kelly Group will present a seminar on his PhD research.
Title:
Isoindigo: The effect of structural changes on optoelectronic properties
In the last two decades organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have garnered much attention for their potential to provide renewable energy. Since 2010, isoindigo-based materials have risen to prominence as a component of the active layer of OPVs. The focus of my research has been using variations in the structure of isoindigo in organic semiconductors to study the effects on properties such as charge carrier mobility, frontier orbital energies, and optical band gap.
Initial research focused on the incorporation of electron deficient azaisoindigo into small molecule organic semiconductors in an effort to narrow their optical band gap and improve OPV performance. Following this, two different isoindigo dimers were synthesized and used in semiconducting co-polymers with thiophene and terthiophene. In this presentation, I will discuss the optical band gaps, orbital energies, and charge carrier mobilities of the resulting materials, as well as their performance in OPVs, and compare the results with those of analogous isoindigo-containing polymers.