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Sustainable Materials and Processes for Optoelectronic Applications

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2019, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Physics.
Organic and polymeric materials have received considerable attention in the past several decades for their potential as active electronic and optical materials. This interest arises from the high level of function, manufacturability, and synthetic tailorability toward function and structure. In this thesis, I focus on sustainable approaches to create optofunctional materials as well as methods for thin film processing to achieve scalable, low-cost avenues for organic optoelectronic devices. Bioinspired molecular self-assembly provides an attractive approach to construct nanoarchitectures for high-performance (opto)functional materials by exploiting the light-harvesting and self-organizing abilities of Nature. The first part of this thesis investigates the self-assembling abilities and light-matter properties of novel biosurfactant- functionalized porphyrin chromophores. It is found that the self-assembly process is driven by a combination of hydrogen-bond, steric, and π-π interactions. In dilute methanol/water solution, we found that excitonically coupled helical structures form by strong carbohydrate hydrogen-bonding interactions. Furthermroe, it was discovered that shortening of the sophorolipid hydrocarbon chain promotes helical reversal that is accompanied with a large increase in the cooperative nature of assembled structures. Solution and other fluid-state processing approaches for organic semiconductors provide low-cost, large area applications for flexible electronics, organic photovoltaics and organic light emitting diodes. However, many processing techniques depend on organic solvents and are subjected to large material waste. The second part of this thesis adapts electrocoating—an aqueous-based industrial-scale technique—to fabricate semiconducting polymer thin films and graphene oxide layers for functional components in photovoltaic solar cells. It was found that electrocoated film thickness was controlled readily by applied voltage and the optoelectronic properties of these films were comparable to films made by spin-coating. Results suggest that electro- coating is a promising deposition method for organic electronic applications including conformal deposition onto complex shaped surfaces for low-cost and environmentally friendly nanoscale film formation.
Kenneth Singer, Dr. (Committee Chair)
240 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Peters, K. C. (2019). Sustainable Materials and Processes for Optoelectronic Applications [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1554397264722736

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Peters, Kyle. Sustainable Materials and Processes for Optoelectronic Applications. 2019. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1554397264722736.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Peters, Kyle. "Sustainable Materials and Processes for Optoelectronic Applications." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1554397264722736

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)