Symposium S on Organic Materials and Devices for Sustainable Energy Systems: Nov. 30 - Dec. 4, 2009 in Boston, MA

0950503

Mammarella

Summary

Organic semiconductors are attractive for application in electronic devices due to their high performance, as well as their compatibility with low-cost, high-throughput processing techniques. The continued expansion of organic electronics is driven by the cross-disciplinary expertise of both academic and industrial researchers. This partnership has led to significant advances in the fundamental understanding of these materials, as well as improvements in the efficiency and operational stability of organic electronic and optoelectronic devices. Many of these systems are being actively developed as part of next generation, energy efficient displays and solid-state lighting fixtures, as well as in photovoltaics for low-cost solar energy utilization.

Intellectual Merit: To fully capitalize on these unique devices, significant gaps in fundamental understanding as well as non-trivial technological challenges must be overcome. This symposium invites abstracts describing significant new developments in the understanding and implementation of organic semiconductors for sustainable energy applications including displays, lighting, and photovoltaics. Topics of interest include device physics, development and characterization of new materials and device architectures, and novel processing methods. Materials Research Society (MRS) symposia related to organic electronic materials and devices have been among the most highly attended at recent MRS meetings. However, it has proven very difficult to include all electronic and optoelectronic device applications as well as materials studies in the same symposium because of the rapidly expanding research community and the overwhelming volume of abstract submission to such MRS symposia. As such, the proposed symposium emphasizes the materials, devices, and processing of organic materials for sustainable energy systems, which include organic photovoltaics, light-emitting devices for displays and lighting, and other novel optoelectronic devices.

Broader Impacts: In order to maximize the educational impact of the proposed symposium, abstracts contributed by graduate students will be given priority in awarding oral or poster presentations. In this way, graduate students will gain valuable experience in presenting and defending their research, as well as exposure to the organic electronics community. Results of the symposium will be disseminated through a conference proceeding that will be edited by the co-organizers of the symposium and published by MRS. Finally, a full-day tutorial is planned in order to educate the materials community on the application of organic semiconductors in energy efficient systems. This tutorial is entitled: Fundamentals of Organic Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, and will be taught by Profs. Jiangeng Xue at the University of Florida and Russell Holmes at the University of Minnesota.