Organic functional materials for flexible electronics and optoelectronics

Short term visitor's project

This projects relates to an innovative approach to the development of new functional materials with nonlinear optical (NLO) properties. NLO materials are important for emergent technologies, such as optical computing, optical switching, and optical communications. Dr Hamad and his team of collaborators have discovered a completely new type of mesoporous materials with channels organized in a chiral nematic structure. These structures have organization resembling that of the cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) used as a template. By filling the helical channels with molecules containing highly polarizable chromophores, we intend to create new materials with high second-order NLO properties.

We will synthesize new mesoporous materials that can adsorb molecular guests, functionalize the surface of the materials to improve their hydrophobicity and stability, investigate their loading with highly polarizable, conjugated molecules, and study the nonlinear optical properties of the chiral, loaded films by 3-wave and 4-wave mixing techniques.

In partnership with FPInnovations, a Canadian not-for-profit research and technology development organization, we intend to develop a new family of NLO materials and to study the unusual optical properties of these materials.