Speakers

Prof. Iain McCulloch is a Professor of Polymer Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford since 2020. Prior to this, he held joint appointments as Professor of Chemical Science and Director of KAUST Solar Center at KAUST, as well as a Chair in Polymer Materials in the Chemistry Department at Imperial College.  Previously, 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 and Brasiers Company Prize. 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. 

Designing High Performing Semiconducting Polymers

Abstract

Organic semiconductors have been demonstrated to be attractive materials in a range of emerging products including flexible displays, transparent solar cells, biosensors and solar fuels.  Understanding the impact of the organic semiconductor chemical design on the application properties, is critical for further advances.  We have explored a range of synthetic strategies and molecular designs, and measured a range of relevant morphological, electrical and optical properties in order to establish fundamental structure-property relationships. This presentation will illustrate a case study design and characterisation of semiconducting polymers, their thin film morphology, demonstrating improvements in charge transport performance in field effect and electrochemical transistors.