Date: March 27, 2017

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.

Location: Maeder Hall

Jenny Nelson, a professor of physics at Imperial College London, will speak on the topic of “Structure-property-function relationships in molecular electronic materials and devices” as part of the 2016-2017 Highlight Seminar series at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

ABSTRACT
Molecular electronic materials have attracted intense interest for applications in light emission, energy conversion, thin-film electronics and other fields. Their appeal lies in the potential to tune material properties (electronic, optical, mechanical and thermal) through control of chemical structure and molecular packing, whilst using facile fabrication methods. Achieving this goal has been challenging, however, due to the intrinsic disorder and structural heterogeneity of the materials and the lack of reliable models to relate structure to physical properties. Recently, developments in materials design, multi-scale modelling and experimental characterisation techniques have allowed a more rational approach to emerge whereby materials – and processing techniques – are designed with specific structural, electronic and optical properties in mind. In this talk we will address the development of rational structure-property relationships in a variety of molecular electronic materials, taking case studies of the impact of chemical and physical structure on phase behaviour, electronic transport, light harvesting, and charge separation. We discuss how such studies have impacted the development of improved devices, such as solar cells, and consider design criteria for higher performance materials.

BIO
Jenny Nelson is a Professor of Physics at Imperial College London, where she has researched novel varieties of materials for use in solar cells since 1989. Her current research is focused on understanding the properties of molecular and hybrid semiconductor materials and their application to solar energy conversion. This work combines fundamental electrical, spectroscopic and structural studies of molecular electronic materials with numerical modelling and device studies, with the aim of optimising the performance of solar cells and other devices based on molecular and hybrid materials. She also works with the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial to explore the mitigation potential of renewable energy technologies. She is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher in Materials Science and has published over 250 articles in peer reviewed journals, several book chapters and a book on the physics of solar cells. She holds a number of awards including the 2016 Institute of Physics Faraday medal and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014.

All seminars are held on Mondays (unless otherwise noted) from 4 to 5:15 p.m. in the Andlinger Center’s Maeder Hall. A reception will be provided in the lobby of Maeder Hall immediately following the seminar.