Families of conjugated organic materials from tunable Thieno [3,4- b ] pyrazine building blocks

1. Tunable Organic Semiconducting MaterialsSeth C. Rasmussen, North Dakota State University Fargo, DMR 0907043 Organic semiconducting materials are of strong interest for technological devices such as solar cells and optical detectors. To produce optimum devices, however, it is critical to control the materials band gap, as well as the specific HOMO and LUMO energies. This allows one to dictate the wavelengths of light absorbed, as well as match the energies of the material to the electrodes interfacing with the organic in the final technological device. Molecular design now allows the production of tunable materials within a single family of organic polymers. Primary tunable sites modify HOMO and LUMO energies, which can be combined with Secondary tuning units to further modify the HOMO energy, thus controlling critical electronic properties. Families of conjugated organic materials from tunable Thieno[3,4-b]pyrazine building blocks Rasmussen, S. C.; Schwiderski, R. L.; Mulholland, M. E. Chem. Commun.2011, Advance Article (10.1039/C1CC12754C)

2. International and Multidisciplinary Experiences Seth C. Rasmussen, North Dakota State University Fargo, DMR 0907043 In order to fully evaluate the new materials developed in the course of this research, device application and testing are necessary. All device fabrication and testing are carried out through an ongoing international collaboration with Prof. Paul Dastoorand the Centre for Organic Electronics at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. An important part of the current DMR project is to send students from North Dakota State University to Australia to get hands-on experience in the fabrication and physics of solar cell devices. Such international and multidisciplinary experiences provides unique training opportunities and prepares more well-rounded materials scientists better able to face future challenges. Graduate Student Mike Mulholland constructing devices in the cleanroom of the University of Newcastle, AU.