Recent Research and News
Congratulations to first-year Marder group member Hye Kyung Kim for receiving a Geogria Tech School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Department of Education’s Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Fellowship. The goal of the GAANN program is to make a significant contribution to satisfying the nation's needs for chemistry Ph.D.s who are optimally trained to embark on research and teaching careers. GT Chemistry and Biochemistry GAANN fellows will also participate in components of the “Tech to Teaching” Faculty Preparation program.
The Kippelen and Marder Groups have published what appears to be a universal technique to reduce the work function of a conductor. The technique deposits a very thin layer of a polymer, approximately one to 10 nanometers thick, on the conductor’s surface to create a strong surface dipole. The interaction turns air-stable conductors into efficient, low-work function electrodes. The technique was used to fabricate an all plastic solar cell. The work was published in the journal Science this week. Read more here.
First-year Marder Group member Rebecca Hill has received the Georgia Tech Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) fellowship in Nanostructured Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion. This fellowship is awarded to students based on their motivation and their desire to understand the technology and policy issues inherent in addressing energy issues, and offers Rebecca the opportunity to take a seminar or studio course related to nanomaterial technology and energy policy each semester during the fellowship year. Congratulations Rebecca!
The Marder Group recently developed air stable n-dopants for organic electronic materials and published the result in Advanced Materials 2012, 24, 699 and Applied Physics Letters 2012, 100, 083305. These dopants improved on earlier results by providing air stability of the dopants prior to mixing with the electron transport material. The dopants were able to successfully reduce electron transport polymers having perylene diimides and TIPS-pentacene. The activation energy of electron transport was reduced and increased film conductivity was seen. We also carried out mechanistic studies that may shed light on paths to further improvement. The research has implications for electron transport materials in a variety of organic electronics applications. See our latest publications.
Dr. Marder was recently appointed a Regents' Professor by The University System of Georgia Board of Regents. A Regents' Professorship and Regents’ Researcher title represents the highest academic status bestowed by the University System of Georgia. It is meant to recognize a substantial, significant and ongoing record of scholarly achievement that has earned high national esteem over a sustained period. Professor Marder is also Georgia Power Chair of Energy Efficiency and a recipient of the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society.
Dr. Marder has received a 2011 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society. The award was granted to Dr. Marder "For seminal contributions to the theory-inspired design, synthesis, characterization, and application of organic second- and third-order nonlinear optical, photorefractive, and electronic materials." Dr. Marder has co-authored more than 300 publications in the research area of the award. Read more about the award to Dr. Marder here and 2011's Cope Scholar co-recipients and other 2011 ACS award recipients here.
The Marder Group in collaboration with the Grätzel Group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Lausanne) recently published a highly efficient dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) based on a new squaraine dye (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Eng. 2011, 50, 6619-6621). DSSCs based on the dye showed high efficiency of 6.74% with liquid electrolytes and 2.69% with solid-state electrolytes. The high efficiencies were achieved through strong absorption of the dye, a red shifted maximum absorption in the spectrum compared to previously used squaraine dyes, and good absorption across the visible spectrum (panchromaticity). Further optimization of these and other dyes structures are currently under way to increase panchromaticity, absorptivity, and hole-electron separation as well as binding group efficiency and other parameters. Please see our publications.
