Professor Luis Campos of Columbia University

"Materials Design for Singlet Fission and CO2 Activation"

Organic materials offer a rich palate to be decorated with functional units in order to tune various properties. This talk will focus on two areas: optoelectronic materials and materials for CO2 activation. In the first example, the ability to generate multiple excitons from a single photon (singlet fission in molecular materials) has the potential to significantly enhance the photocurrent in single-junction solar cells, and thus raise the power conversion efficiency from the theoretical limit of 33% to 44%. However, there is a paucity of materials that undergo efficient singlet fission. Our group is interested in designing building blocks that are capable of generating triplet pairs in modular small molecules and polymers. Here, we discuss our efforts into developing triplet fusion materials and the new potential applications. In a separate program, we are developing new chemistries for CO2 activation, capture and release. New concepts for the synthesis of circular economy polymers using CO2 will be covered. In general, this talk will provide an overview on our approach to the design, synthesis, and evaluation of the materials developed in our lab.