ORGAED: ORGAnic Electronic Devices Spanish Network (RED2022-134503-T)

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ORGAED

PROJECTS

Organic electronic devices: from high-performance materials to advanced applications

  • FINANCIAL ENTITY

    Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación

  • DURATION

    01/06/2024-31/05/2025

  • PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

    Esther Barrena (Coordinadora)

  • PARTICIPANTS

    Begoña Milián Medina, Jose Luis Segura, José Ignacio Martínez Ruiz, Berta Gómez-Lor Pérez, Diego Peña Gil, Juan Carlos Sancho Garcia, María Antonia Herrero Chamorro, Marco Gobbi, Marta Mas, Belén Villacampa, Rocío Ponce Ortiz, Raquel Andreu, Nuria Crivillers, y M Carmen Ruiz

The ORGAED network is based on the cooperation between 12 groups with complementary expertise and research capacities to target the exploration of novel routes, from the synthesis of OSCs to device implementation (Redes de Investigación 2022, RED2022-134503-T). 

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) have emerged as a promising technology for the conception and realization of innovative and smart devices, with advantages over their inorganic analogs in terms of stretchability, flexibility, biocompatibility, and low-cost solution processability. Potential applications of organic electronics span a broad range of fields, including medicine and biomedical research, energy, and information and communications. Already, organic electronic devices based on OLED displays are in the market, often without consumers being aware of the organic nature of the electronic technology. However several challenges remain before other type of organic electronic devices (such as field effect transistors) will become a widespread commercial reality.

In order to progress in the field, different challenges have to be faced such as searching for new organic materials for achieving higher mobility values, understanding the role of interfaces, controlling the molecular self-assembly and finding routes for device implementation. Regarding the scientific goals, ORGAED aims at exploring the properties of novel OSCs materials for their application in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and establishing guidelines for understanding structure-property relationships and the limiting factors that hamper the device performance. Although the research of the groups in the network is predominantly fundamental, the network also covers crucial proof-of-concept studies that will undoubtedly contribute to the development of emerging high-impact electronic technologies.

Participants

  • Esther Barrena

    The Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC)

  • Begoña Milián Medina

    UNIVERSIDAD DE VALENCIA

  • Jose Luis Segura

    UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID

  • José Ignacio Martínez Ruiz

    Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM-CSIC)

  • Berta Gómez-Lor Pérez

    Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM-CSIC)

  • Diego Peña Gil

    UNIVERSIDADE DE SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA

  • Juan Carlos Sancho Garcia

    Universidad de Alicante

  • María Antonia Herrero Chamorro

    UNIVERSIDAD DE CASTILLA-LA MANCHA

  • Marco Gobbi

    Materials Physics Center / ASOC CIC NANOGUNE

  • Marta Mas

    The Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC)

  • Belén Villacampa

    Universidad de Zaragoza

  • Rocío Ponce Ortiz

    Universidad de Málaga

  • Carmen Ruiz Delgado

    Universidad de Málaga

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SPM platform @InCAEM: In Situ Correlative Facility for Advanced Energy Materials (PRTR-C17.I1)

Written by Carmen Ocal on . Posted in Projects.

Scanning Probe Microscopy Platform within the InCAEM project 

InCAEM is part of the Planes Complementarios programme, launched and funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation together with the Generalitat de Catalunya, with the support of NextGeneration EU funds. InCAEM is led by ALBA and belongs to the Advanced Materials project, aimed at developing new sustainable materials to be used in batteries, electric vehicles or solar cells, among others.

The SPM platform will count with diverse SPMs within the ALBA synchrotron installations to provide the local probe characterization in correlative experiments with ALBA beamlines.
ICMAB is responsible of two laboratories housing three SPMs: STM/ncAFM under UHV (SPECS) and two FX40 (Park Systems) working in different environments from gas to liquids, one installed inside a Glovebox (MBraun).

Full updated information of the joint project can be found in the section “InCAEM” of the ALBA instrumentation website.

OPINOS: Operando and in-situ multimode characterization of organic semiconductors for a comprehensive design of high performance electronic devices (PID2022-136802NB-I00)

Written by Carmen Ocal on . Posted in Projects.

Operando and in-situ multimode characterization of organic semiconductors for a comprehensive design of high performance electronic devices (OPINOS)

The exceptional chemical versatility of pi-conjugated organic materials as organic semiconductors
(OSCs), coupled with their ease in processing and adaptability to any substrate shape, size, and
type, make them excellent candidates for a broad range of (opto)electronic applications addressing
the fields of energy, environment, health, information, communication, robotics, and sensing. And
still, in spite of the great progress over the last few years, organic light emitting diodes (OLED)
are the only organic devices commercialized so far. One of the solid-state devices that has been at
the heart of the quest for commercially viable organic electronics is the organic field-effect
transistor (OFET), not only as electronic component in circuits, but also for the development of low cost
(bio)-chemical sensors. Furthermore, co-crystallization of molecules with electron donor (D) and
acceptor (A) properties to form charge-transfer complexes (CTCs) have emerged as one of the promising
field of research to obtain novel electrical and optical properties, which are far beyond the
performance of single materials, and avoiding complicated and time-consuming organic synthesis
procedures. Selection of suitable D and A systems enables a large range of tunable structures, i.e.,
offering a library of high-performance organic semiconductors with a fascinating prospect of
applications. While the parent compounds tend to be unipolar semiconductors, CTCs can vary in band
gap from insulators to metals, and can even be superconductors. In relation to OFETs, organic
CTCs provide a new way to realize OSC semiconductors with ambipolar behavior and air-stable n-type
OFETs and near-infrared photo-response. However, several challenges remain before OFETs-related
applications can become a widespread commercial reality. Despite its accepted importance by the
organic electronics community, optimizing the performance of OSCs through thin film engineering is
complicated by the fact that the relationship between microstructure, morphology, and transport
properties is still far from being well established. Besides, polymorphism can add a major hurdle to
overcome for a promising functional property to be exploited.

Efficient Fullerene-Free organic solar cells MSCA Doctoral Network

Written by Carmen Ocal on . Posted in Projects.

The EIFFEL project responds to the urgent need for advancements in NFA materials and NFA-based OSCs, as highlighted by the REPowerEU initiative. While Europe has lost leadership in device performance to Asia, particularly in NFAs, EIFFEL aims to be a game-changer by employing goal-driven design strategies and collaborating with stakeholders. 

EIFFEL is structured in 6 work-packages (WPs): three are dedicated to research activities, including 10 individual projects, and the remaining three are related to training (WP 2), dissemination (WP 6) and management (WP 1)

Full information about the EIFFEL network and the consortium will be available and updated in the EIFFEL website and social media platforms:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eiffel.doctoral.network

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eiffel-dn

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EiffelDN

Snowmaking project

Written by albert on . Posted in Projects.

Snowmaking Generation

PROJECT

Snowmaking Generation

This project is a joining effort of a research group at the Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) and Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC), in collaboration with Technoalpin.

  • FINANCIAL ENTITY

    La actividad es parte del proyecto CPP2021-009093, financiado por MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 y por la Unión Europea-NextGenerationEU/PRTR

  • DURATION

    2022 – 2025

  • PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

    ALBERT VERDAGUER

  • PERSONNEL INVOLVED

    • Mechanical and Electronic Engineer: Josep M. Estiarte Bosque
    • Project Researcher: Dr. Raquel Gimeno Muñoz
    • PhD student: Júlia Canet Guillén
    • Project Researcher: Dr. Laura Rodríguez Domínguez
    • Project Manager: Eulàlia Pujades Otero

Spain, and in general all Mediterranean countries, are expected to suffer important increases in temperatures in the next decades due to global warming which, in addition, induces climate changes that can make raining and snowing more erratic, alternating periods of heavy precipitation and drought. These changes can be even more dramatic in mountain areas because, besides the obvious catastrophic repercussion in nature, the economy of many depend on snow.

Ski mountain resorts are a solid and widespread reality in the Pyrenees; they fix population and generate direct and indirect job opportunities acting as economic engines that add value to the territory. In this region, however, an increase of –at least– 1.6 ℃ has been predicted by 2050. Although this might have a rather minor impact on the total snow precipitation in one year, natural snowing will become more and more irregular affecting ski resorts, which need just the opposite. That is the reason why all resorts have taken advantage of snow production in the past decades: to avoid depending on erratic snowing.

Nevertheless, this increase of temperatures will make most of the ski resorts not sustainable with the actual technology by that time. Thus, in that scenario, the main challenge for ski resorts must face the reduction of energy costs by for instance, reducing the number of hours of snow production.

On the other hand, sudden closure of ski resorts could be fateful for mountain areas so, even if in a long-term view their economy has to be reformulated, having technology that assure sustainable snowmaking up to 2050 will give time to take the appropriate actions for a smooth transition. This kind of technology not only would increase the resilience of
mountain areas to the economic effects of global warming, but also could be respectful to the environment as it could help to preserve it.

This project is a joining effort of a research group at the Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) and Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) –a public company that manage several ski resorts in the Catalan Pyrenees, in collaboration with TechnoAlpin –a leader company in snowmaking technology.

TechnoAlpin has been developing for years technologies applied to snowmaking equipment that are now reaching its mechanical limit. Despite of the improvement during the last decades, the current technology will still need an important amount of energy to work at the predicted temperatures in the Pyrenees. Besides, it will not be able to transform into snow all the water used in the snowmakers, which would lead to an important loss of this valuable resource.

ICMAB research group and TechnoAlpin have recently developed a technology based on the mineralization of the water used to make snow similarly to the process of natural snow formation, reproducing it in a small scale. According to laboratory results, the use of this technology could improve snowmaking efficiency, with less water and less energy needed for the same volume of produced snow. The minerals that will be tested in the project belong to the feldspar family. These minerals are environmentally harmless, they exist in abundance in Earth and they are known to be one of the main particles in atmosphere that interact with clouds inducing precipitation (click here to know more about the role of minerals and specially feldspar in the clouds).

FGC, coordinating the project and looking for a public service, offers their expertise in years of snowmaking as well as their ski-slope facilities to create field-test areas in order to check in-situ the viability of this technology.

The aim of this three-party collaboration is to study for three years the use of this new technology in all possible real situations in order to determine its viability and the benefits in terms of energy, water saving and snowmaking capabilities for ski resorts. The project is designed to obtain the maximum universal results, with tests in different locations so, as a final outcome, it would result in a technology that could be used in any ski resort either in Spain or abroad. All tests will be performed in areas closed to the public, thus not in regular ski slopes.

More snow volume, less energy, less water, less dependency on temperatures, more sustainable, more natural.

  • Dr. Albert Verdaguer

    ICMAB-CSIC Tenured Scientist

  • Maite Garcia Valles

    Profesora Titular de Universitat Barcelona

  • Núria Roca Pascual

    Professora agregada de la Universitat de Barcelona

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FESTA: Photochemistry and stability of organic/water model interfaces for water splitting (PID2019-110907GB-I00)

Written by Carmen Ocal on . Posted in Projects.

OSCs photoelectrodes are promising for photoelectrochemical water splitting, which gains more attention every year. The stability of the photoelectrodes still remains a major performance constraint. Few factors might contribute to the observed photocurrent decay, including chemical or morphological/structural transformation and photochemical degradation of the OSC materials. However, the rationale behind the factors affecting stability and water splitting mechanism has not been properly understood yet. From a molecular perspective, very little is known about the photochemical surface reaction, the interaction of absorbed water molecules with specific molecular sites and how water affects the structural and electronic properties of the OSCs films. We would like to mention a recent work that has identified the role of water in charge trapping in OSCs polymers. It has been proposed that the origin of the traps is due to a dielectric effect of water penetrating nanovoids in the organic semiconductor thin film. This proposal aims at advancing our understanding on the crucial role of structural and chemical factors at model interfaces of interest for water splitting, at the intersection of precisely controlled surfaces/interfaces and advanced in-situ characterization tools.

Solution processed organic semiconductors (OSCs) are a promising class of materials to enable low-cost and high performance fuel production. The advantages of solution-processable OSCs and their success in organic photovoltaic devices have triggered the interest of optimizing their properties for operation in photocatalytic water splitting devices. Within this scenario, an approach is the use OSCs as photoelectrodes for visible-light water splitting. Although the stability of the materials in aqueous environment remains a major performance limitation, the rationale behind the factors affecting the stability and water splitting mechanisms has not been properly understood yet. The goal of this proposal is to provide a nanoscopic picture of the OSC/water interface and an understanding of the photochemical processes by in-situ characterization methods. The bottom-up growth of conjugated 2D-COFs with a tailored variation of the pore size and hydrophilic/hydrophobic character will allow us to advance the understanding of the crucial role of structural and chemical factors at organic/water model interfaces of interest for water splitting. Our research group combines large expertise in the fields of OSCs growth and water on surfaces as well as in a wide spectrum of advanced surface characterization techniques and in-situ characterization methods. We expect that the results will provide ground ideas for the design of materials with improved performance and stability for photocatalytic water splitting applications.