Research Areas
• Direct HeteroArylation Polymerization
• Photovoltaic Cells
• Organic Field Effect Transistors
Research
Our research team is working on the design, synthesis and characterization of conjugated polymers for applications in the field of organic electronic. All the work is done in our laboratories and we have access to all the equipment needed to develop new polymers and electro-optic devices. For further information, please select one of our research areas.
Direct Heteroarylation Polymerization
Our team is actively working on the development of a new polymerization method for the synthesis of electroactive and photoactive conjugated polymers. The Direct Heteroarylation Polymerization (DHAP) is a an innovative, cheap, versatile and environmentally-friendly polymerization method. This polymerization method not only allows a greener, cheaper and
optimized synthesis of already known important polymers for plastic electronics, but also led to the development of totally
new semiconducting polymers. Every aspect of this polymerization method is scrutinized and optimized to fully understand the mechanisms involved during the polymerization. Our research group is recognized as a world leader for the design and the synthesis of conjugated polymers.
Photovoltaic Cells
The non-renewable energy sources will be replaced. Solar energy is an abundant green energy source that represents a renewable and sustainable solution. Even if the yield of energetic conversion of Silicon based photovoltaic cells is good (10-22%), the manufacturing costs of those kind of devices still quite high. The recent development of polymeric solar cells led to power conversion efficiency exceeding 10 % and accelarated lifetime up to 10 years. Those two values filled the requirements for further commercialization. We are working actively on the development of new and efficient materials for plastic solar cells and our portfolio contains some of the most efficient and stable materials. Our research group is recognized as a world leader in this field of research.
Organic Field Effect Transistors
Transistors take a great place in today’s technology. Amorphous silicon is currently the material used for the targeted applications. Despite its efficiency, the manufacturing costs of silicon based transistors remain high, too high for the development of cheap radio-frequency tags for example. In the past years, it has been shown that organic polymers or oligomers could replace silicon because of the possibility of making low-cost, light and flexible devices. The latest development in OFETs led to materials with impressive electrical properties which meet the requirements for the development of printed organic electronic devices such as sensors end RFID tags.
