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CREOL Colloquium Series: Andre J. Gesquiere: A Nanoscale Spectroscopic Study of Chain Morphology in Conducting Polymer Materials for Optoelectronic Device Applications
Friday, September 19, 2008 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM CREOL Room 102
Andre J. Gesquiere, Daeri Tenery, Zhongjian Hu, Max BonnerNanoScience Technology Center and Department of Chemistry, University of Central FloridaEmail: andre@mail.ucf.edu
Abstract: The study of the photophysical and optoelectronic properties of a functioning conducting polymer device is extremely complicated and is hampered by the complex nanostructure and overall morphology of the conducting polymer materials applied in these devices. In this talk a novel approach to spectroscopically investigate this issue in terms of bulk-heterojunction organic photovoltaic devices will be presented. Composite conjugated polymer (MEH-PPV, P3HT)-fullerene (PCBM) nanoparticles, representing a new class of nanoparticles, were fabricated and their optoelectronic properties were investigated. These novel nanoparticles represent structures in between single molecules and bulk that allow for a detailed investigation of the role of nanostructure on the properties of bulk materials. Characterization of the nanoparticles with solution- and single particle spectroscopy reveals the extent to which variations in polymer chain folding and interactions between polymer chains and fullerenes affect material morphology, spectral- and optoelectronic properties. Distribution of spectral properties of individual nanoparticles and modeling of the fluorescence data with a Franck-Condon model provide a detailed molecular scale insight in the morphological effects at play in the active layers of bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic devices.
Bio: Andre J. Gesquiere obtained his Ph.D. in 2001 in the group of Frans De Schryver at K. U. Leuven, Belgium, where he worked on the characterization of organic supramolecular systems. After a post-doctoral stay in the group of E. W. Meijer at T.U. Eindhoven, The Netherlands, he moved to the group of Paul Barbara at the University of Texas at Austin as a postdoctoral researcher, where he developed single molecule conducting polymer devices that allow for the photophysical characterization of single conjugated polymer molecules embedded in functioning devices.
Since 2005 he is an assistant professor at the NanoScience Technology Center at the University of Central Florida where he is working on fundamentally addressing issues of light absorption and conversion of absorbed light to free charge carriers in active conducting polymer materials for solar energy conversion. The main goal is to understand how the architecture and morphology of conducting polymer materials and devices for solar energy conversion affect device function/performance with a focus on interfacial charge transfer phenomena at the nanoscale.
He has published over 30 papers and has won several prestigious awards including fellowships from the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders (Belgium), and a National Science Foundation CAREER award.
CREOL Colloquium SeriesContact: Aristide DogariuPresentation starts at 11:00 AM preceded by mingling & refreshments from 10:30.
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