Organic and Polymer Electronics Laboratory

Our research is in the area of materials chemistry and physics of complex, soft materials. Specifically, we are interested in electrically-active polymeric and molecular materials.  We hope to elucidate the fundamental processing-structure-property relationships that govern these materials to generate design rules and guidelines for the rational synthesis of materials with tailored properties and the development of innovative processing and patterning technologies for the realization of low-cost, light weight, mechanically flexible thin-film devices, such as organic transistors and solar cells.

Currently, we are examining how specific processing conditions affect the structure evolution of organic and polymer materials, and how structure development can in turn impact applications-relevant macroscopic electrical and physical properties. Work is being carried out on functional block copolymers, solution-processable organic and polymeric conductors and semiconductors, as well as conjugated self-assembled monolayers.

Keep up to date with publications from the Loo group!

By testing an array of transistors fabricated on a single solution-processed, organic semiconductor spherulite, we found device mobilities to be independent of the general π-stacking direction of molecules in the active channels. This finding is surprising in light of reports on single-crystal transistors, in which charge transport is reported to be fastest along the π-stacking direction. We conclude that charge transport within spherulites is dominated by shallow traps at low-angle intraspherulite grain boundaries, smearing out any charge transport anisotropies that may exist along different crystallographic directions of the organic semiconductor.  Learn more!

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