PAIR Distinguished Lecture by Prof. Iain McCulloch on 'Designing Organic Semiconductors to Optimise Charge Transport'
PAIR Distinguished Lecture Series
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Date
14 Jan 2025
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Organiser
PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research
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Time
14:30 - 16:00
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Venue
Senate Room, M1603, 16/F Li Ka Shing Tower, PolyU (Limited seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis)
Speaker
Prof. Iain MCCULLOCH
Enquiry
PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research info.pair@polyu.edu.hk
Summary
Prof. Iain McCULLOCH from Princeton University, United States, delivered the 34th PAIR Distinguished Lecture titled “Designing Organic Semiconductors to Optimise Charge Transport” on 14 January 2025 on PolyU campus. The lecture attracted over 100 participants to join in person and captivated an online audience of over 12,700 from different countries and regions who watched the live broadcast on multiple social media platforms, including Bilibili, WeChat, Weibo and YouTube.
The lecture commenced with a warm welcome and introduction of the speaker by Prof. CHEN Qingyan, Director of PAIR. Prof. McCulloch kickstarted his presentation by giving a brief overview of the current molecular designs of organic semiconductor polymers for charge transport. He explained how they enable organic thin film transistors to achieve high charge carrier mobility and their applications in flexible screens and other electronic devices. He then elaborated on the molecular characteristics of the indacenodithiophene-co-benzothiadiazole copolymer, a semiconductor polymer that exhibits high carrier mobility and is commonly used in organic transistors.
Prof. McCulloch also emphasised the importance of “conformational coplanarity” and “side chain assisted self-assembly”. These features help enhance one-dimensional transport along the “conjugated polymer backbone” and form sterically free “crossing points”, allowing charges to hop between chains. He further highlighted that current research has shown that the molecular conformation and film microstructure are influenced by the design and processing conditions of organic semiconductor polymers, and these significant findings can help achieve optimal charge transport properties.
Following the presentation was a question-and-answer session moderated by Prof. YAN Feng, Associate Director of the Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR) and Chair Professor of Organic Electronics in the Department of Applied Physics. The audience engaged in a productive discussion with Prof. McCulloch.
Please click here for an online review.
Photo Gallery
Renowned expert in organic semiconducting polymers from Princeton University delivers PAIR lecture
Prof. Iain MCCULLOCH
Gerhard R. Andlinger '52 Professor in Energy and the Environment
Director of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment
Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Princeton University, USA
Visiting Professor of Polymer Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry
University of Oxford, UK
Prof. Iain MCCULLOCH is the Director of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Princeton University, as well as holding a Visiting Professor position in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford. He previously held joint appointments as Professor of Chemical Science and Director of KAUST Solar Center at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), as well as a Chair in Polymer Materials in the Chemistry Department at Imperial College. Before joining academia, he spent 18 years managing industrial research groups at Hoechst in the US and Merck in the UK. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the European Academy of Sciences and a Member of Academia Europaea. He is the recipient of the 2022 Royal Society Armourers & Brasiers Prize, the 2020 Blaise Pascal Medal for Materials Science, the Royal Society of Chemistry 2020 Interdisciplinary Prize, 2014 Tilden Medal for Advances in Chemistry and the 2009 Creativity in Industry Prize. His interests are in the design and investigation of organic semiconducting materials.
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