Events

Date: 4 December 2024   Time: 14:00 - 15:00

Location: GO Jones LT

Title: The development of photon-multiplier materials based on nanoparticle:small organic semiconductor blends

Speaker: Dr Dan Toolan

Abstract:

This talk will focus on the development of nanocomposite films, which comprise small molecule organic semiconductors (OSC) blended with quantum dots (QDs). This topic is directly relevant to the development of photon multipliers, a technology with significant promise for enhancing the performance of silicon photovoltaics (Si-PV). This enhancement is achieved by circumventing the thermalization limit in single-junction PVs, whereby, a singlet exciton from a single high-energy photon in an organic semiconductor undergoes decay into two independent triplet excitons. These triplet excitons are then transferred to a QD and subsequently re-emitted. The re-emission occurs at an energy much closer, by design, to the PV bandgap. I will provide a summary of the significant developments in controlling and understanding the self-assembly of photon multiplier materials, which play a critical role in determining the performance of these exciting materials as quantified by combinations of microscopy and grazing incidence X-ray scattering.

Bio:

Dan is currently a Lecturer in Polymer Science in the Department of Materials at The University of Manchester.

He studied Chemistry at The University of Sheffield during which he spent a year in industry working for Tata Steel Europe (formally British Steel). Dan conducted his PhD studies in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Sheffield under the supervision of Prof. Jon Howse. Upon completing his PhD Dan conducted a three-month fellowship at the Osaka Institute of Technology in Prof. Suiji Fuji's lab, before returning to Prof. Jon Howse's group to undertake a postdoc. His research during this part of his career covered a wide-range of soft-matter topics, including printable electronics, microwave-processing of polymers, responsive-coatings, contact lenses and polymer particles mirroring complex emergent biological behaviours.

After completing his PhD and postdoc in a Chemical Engineering department Dan moved to the Department of Chemistry at Sheffield, working for Prof. Tony Ryan and Prof. Richard Jones to develop new optoelectronically active nanocomposite films and coatings in collaboration with the Cambridge Optoelectronics group (Prof. Richard Friend, Prof. Akshay Rao) were he has taken experimental methods and approaches from soft matter for the development of new optoelectronically active materials based on blends of inorganic semiconducting nanoparticles and small-molecule organic semiconductors. Dan joined the Department of Materials as a Lecturer in Polymer Science in November 2023 and his research group is focuses on solution processed energy materials (photovoltaics, solar energy conversion materials and thermoelectric materials based upon small-molecule organic semiconductors, semiconducting polymers, nanoparticles/quantum dots and blends of these).

The overarching theme linking his research activities has been the development of new, in situ experimental techniques [based on microscopy and X-ray/neutron scattering and reflectivity] to deliver new insights into self-assembly phenomena that occur during materials processing.