ABOUT
Antonio
Facchetti
Professor
Hightower Chair in MSE
Member/Fellow:
AAAS, ACS, ACS-PMSE, EAS, MRS, RSC
afacchetti6@gatech.edu
404-8947705
773-957-6531
MRDC 4504

Antonio Facchetti obtained his Laurea degree in Chemistry cum laude and a Ph.D in Chemical Sciences from the University of Milan. In 2022 he joined the School of Material Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern and a Guest Professor at Linkoping University. He is a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of Flexterra Corporation. 

Prof. Facchetti has published more than 670 research articles, 14 book chapters, and holds more than 120 patents (H-index 132). He received the 2009 Italian Chemical Society Research Prize, the team IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe 2010 Award, the corporate 2011 Flextech Award. In 2010 was elected a Kavli Fellow, in 2012 a Fellow of the American Association for the Advanced of Science (AAAS), in 2013 Fellow of the Materials Research Society, in 2015 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and in 2016 a Fellow of the ACS Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering. In 2010 he was selected among the "TOP 100 MATERIALS SCIENTISTS OF THE PAST DECADE (2000-2010)" by Thomson Reuters and in 2015-2023 recognized as a Highly Cited Scientist. In 2016 he has been elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and was awarded the 2016 ACS Award for Creative Invention. In 2017 he was awarded the Giulio Natta Gold Medal from the Italian Chemical Society for his work on polymeric materials and in 2019 he was inducted into the Advanced Materials Hall of Fame. 

Students:
Sakshi Sharma
Marcus Hawley
Marcus Choates
Group Members:
Dayong Zhang (NU), Deniz Cakal (NU), Lin Gao (NU), I. Daniel Duplessis (NU),
Yao Yao (NU), Giacomo Forti (NU), Yongjoon Cho (NU), Junyi Yin (GT, 2024)
Selected publications

573 Publications in Peered-Review Journals including: 4 Nature, 1 Science, 13 Nature Mater., 11 PNAS, 4 Nature Electronics., 1 Nature Energy, 4 Nature Commun., 1 Nature Energy; 6 Chem. Rev. 8 Macromolecules, 8 Chem. Commun., 7 Nano Letters, 10 Angew. Chem., 17 J. Mater. Chem., 11 Org. Electronics, 8 J. Org. Chem., 24 Appl. Phys. Lett., 25 Adv Funct. Mater., 37 Chem. Mater., 55 Adv. Mater., 81 J. Am. Chem. Soc..

124 US Patents Issued, 118 International Patents Issued, 8 Allowed/Formalized/Provisional Patent Applications

Publications in 2023

573. Huang, W.; Chen, J.; Yao, Y.; Zheng, D.; Ji, X.; Feng, L.-W.; Moore, D.; Glavin, N. R.; Xie, M.; Chen, Y.; Pankow, R. M.; Surendran, A.; Wang, Z.; Xia, Y.; Bai, L.; Rivnay, J.; Ping, J.; Guo, X.; Cheng, Y.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Vertical organic electrochemical transistors for complementary circuits. Nature (London, U. K.) 2023, 613, 496-502

572. Yao, Y.; Huang, W.; Chen, J.; Liu, X.; Bai, L.; Chen, W.; Cheng, Y.; Ping, J.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Flexible and Stretchable Organic Electrochemical Transistors for Physiological Sensing Devices. Adv. Mater. (Weinheim, Ger.) 2023, 35, 2209906.

571. Qin, F.; Li, G.; Liu, Y.; Cho, Y.; Pankow, R. M.; Zhang, D.; Feng, L.; Wang, Y.; Jeong, S.; Forti, G.; Zheng, D.; Yang, C.; Zhou, Y.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Conjugated versus Nonconjugated Polymerized Small-Molecule Acceptors. Photovoltaic Response and Mechanical Properties. ACS Energy Letters 2023, 8, 4733-4745.

570. Zhuang, X.; Kim, J.-S.; Huang, W.; Chen, Y.; Wang, G.; Chen, J.; Yao, Y.; Wang, Z.; Liu, F.; Yu, J.; Cheng, Y.; Yang, Z.; Lauhon, L. J.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. High-performance and low-power source-gated transistors enabled by a solution-processed metal oxide homojunction. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2023, 120, e2216672120.

569. Zhong, L.; Sun, Z.; Lee, S.; Jeong, S.; Jung, S.; Cho, Y.; Park, J.; Park, J.; Yoon, S. J.; Yang, C. Solid Additive Delicately Controls Morphology Formation and Enables High‐Performance in Organic Solar Cells. Advanced Functional Materials 2023, 2305450.

568. Zhao, D.; Kim, D.; Ghosh, S.; Wang, G.; Huang, W.; Zhu, Z. L.; Marks, T. J.; Zozoulenko, I.; Facchetti, A. Mechanical, Morphological, and Charge Transport Properties of NDI Polymers with Variable Built-in Π-Conjugation Lengths Probed by Simulation and Experiment. Advanced Functional Materials 2023.

567. Yao, Y.; Huang, W.; Chen, J. H.; Liu, X. X.; Bai, L. B.; Chen, W.; Cheng, Y. H.; Ping, J. F.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Flexible and Stretchable Organic Electrochemical Transistors for Physiological Sensing Devices. Advanced Materials 2023, 35.

566. Yao, Y.; Huang, W.; Chen, J.; Liu, X.; Bai, L.; Chen, W.; Cheng, Y.; Ping, J.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Flexible and Stretchable Organic Electrochemical Transistors for Physiological Sensing Devices. Advanced Materials 2023, 35, 2209906.

565. Wu, J.; Fu, C.; Pankow, R. M.; Chen, Y.; Zheng, D.; Lu, Z.; Huang, Y.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Copolymers Based on π-Conjugated Asymmetric Naphthalene Diimide Building Blocks: Synthesis, Crystallography, and Structure–Property–Charge Transport/Photovoltaic Correlations. Chemistry of Materials 2023.

564. Trippodo, E.; Campisciano, V.; Feng, L.-W.; Chen, Y.; Huang, W.; Alzola, J. M.; Zheng, D.; Sangwan, V. K.; Hersam, M. C.; Wasielewski, M. R.; Pignataro, B.; Giacalone, F.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Air-stable ternary organic solar cells achieved by using fullerene additives in non-fullerene acceptor-polymer donor blends. J. Mater. Chem. C 2023, 11, 8074-8083.

563. Su, N.; Chen, J.; Peng, M.; Li, G.; Pankow, R. M.; Zheng, D.; Ding, J.; Facchetti, A.; Marks, T. J. π-Extension and chlorination of non-fullerene acceptors enable more readily processable and sustainable high-performance organic solar cells. J. Energy Chem. 2023, 79, 321-329.

562. Shim, H.; Sim, K.; Wang, B.; Zhang, Y.; Patel, S.; Jang, S.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A.; Yu, C. Elastic integrated electronics based on a stretchable n-type elastomer-semiconductor-elastomer stack. Nat. Electron. 2023, 6, 349-359.

561. Sang, L.; Chen, X.; Fang, J.; Xu, P.; Tian, W.; Shui, K.; Han, Y.; Wang, H.; Huang, R.; Zhang, Q. Elimination of Drying‐Dependent Component Deviation Using a Composite Solvent Strategy Enables High‐Performance Inkjet‐Printed Organic Solar Cells with Efficiency Approaching 16%. Advanced Functional Materials 2023, 2304824.

560. Park, J. B.; Kim, J.; Jang, Y. W.; Park, H.-B.; Yang, S. H.; Kim, D.-H.; Kim, M.; Facchetti, A.; Park, S. K. Analysis of Carrier Transport in Quantum Dot/Metal-Oxide Phototransistors via Light-Mediated Interfacial Modeling. Adv. Opt. Mater. 2023, 11, 2201559.

559. Pankow, R. M.; Kerwin, B.; Cho, Y.; Jeong, S.; Forti, G.; Musolino, B.; Yang, C.; Facchetti, A.; Marks, T. J. Enhanced Optical Contrast and Switching in Near-Infrared Electrochromic Devices by Optimizing Conjugated Polymer Oligo(Ethylene Glycol) Sidechain Content and Gel Electrolyte Composition. Advanced Functional Materials 2023.

558. Pankow, R. M.; Harbuzaru, A.; Zheng, D.; Kerwin, B.; Forti, G.; Duplessis, I. D.; Musolino, B.; Ponce Ortiz, R.; Facchetti, A.; Marks, T. J. Oxidative-Reductive Near-Infrared Electrochromic Switching Enabled by Porous Vertically Stacked Multilayer Devices. J. Am. Chem. Soc.2023, 145, 13411-13419.

557. Ovhal, M. M.; Lee, H. B.; Boud, S.; Ko, K.-J.; Jin, W.-Y.; Kumar, N.; Tyagi, B.; Kang, J.-W. Flexible, stripe-patterned organic solar cells and modules based on multilayer-printed Ag fibers for smart textile applications. Materials Today Energy 2023, 34, 101289.

556. Luo, Y.; et al. Technology Roadmap for Flexible Sensors. ACS Nano 2023, 17, 5211-5295.

555. Li, G.; Qin, F.; Jacobberger, R. M.; Mukherjee, S.; Jones, L. O.; Young, R. M.; Pankow, R. M.; Kerwin, B. P.; Flagg, L. Q.; Zheng, D.; Feng, L.-W.; Kohlstedt, K. L.; Sangwan, V. K.; Hersam, M. C.; Schatz, G. C.; DeLongchamp, D. M.; Wasielewski, M. R.; Zhou, Y.; Facchetti, A.; Marks, T. J. What is the role of non-fullerene acceptor symmetry in polymer solar cell efficiency? Joule 2023, 7, 2152-2173.

554. Lee, S.; Jeon, Y.; Lee, S. Y.; Ma, B. S.; Song, M.; Jeong, D.; Jo, J.; Kim, G.-U.; Lee, J.; Kim, T.-S.; Kim, B. J.; Lee, J.-Y. Intrinsically Stretchable Organic Solar Cells without Cracks under 40% Strain. Advanced Energy Materials 2023, 13, 2300533.

553. Kim, J.; Lee, J. H.; Lee, J. M.; Facchetti, A.; Marks, T. J.; Park, S. K. Recent Advances in Low-Dimensional Nanomaterials for Photodetectors. Small Methods 2023.

Major Publications in Previous Years

552. Chen, J.; Huang, W.; Zheng, D.; Xie, Z.; Zhuang, X.; Zhao, D.; Chen, Y.; Su, N.; Chen, H.; Pankow, R. M.; Gao, Z.; Yu, J. Guo, X.; Cheng, Y.; Strzalka, J.; Yu, X.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Highly-Stretchable Organic Electrochemical Transistors with Strain-Resistant Performance Nature Mater. 2022, 21, 564–571.

551. Kim, J.; Park, J. B.; Zheng, D.; Kim, J.-S.; Cheng, Y.; Park, S. K.; Huang, W.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti A. Readily Accessible Metallic Micro Island Arrays for High‐Performance Metal Oxide Thin‐Film Transistors Adv. Mater. (Weinheim, Ger.) 2022, 34, 2205871.

548. Wang, B.; Huang, W.; Bedzyk, M. J.; Dravid, V. P.; Hu, Y.-Y.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Combustion synthesis and polymer doping of metal oxides for high-performance electronic circuitry. Acc. Chem. Res. 2022, 55, 429-441.

531. Guo, H.; Yang, C.Y.; Zhang, X.; Motta, A.; Feng, K.; Xia, Y.; Shi, Y.; Wu, Z.; Yang, K.; Chen, J.; Liao, Q.; Tang, Y.; Sun, H.; Woo, H. Y.; Fabiano, S.; Facchetti, A.; Guo, X. Transition metal catalysed molecular n-doping of organic semiconductors. Nature 2021, 599,67-73.

530. Wang, B.; Huang, W.; Lee, S.; Huang, L.; Wang, Z.; Chen, Y.; Chen, Z.; Feng, L.-W.; Wang, G.; Yokota, T.; Someya, T.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Foundry-compatible high-resolution patterning of vertically phase-separated semiconducting films for ultraflexible organic electronics. Nat. Commun. 2021, 12, 4937.

529. Yao, Y.; Huang, W.; Chen, J.; Wang, G.; Chen, H.; Zhuang, X.; Ying, Y.; Pinga, J.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Flexible Complementary Circuits Operating at Sub-0.5 Volt via Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Electrolyte Gated Transistors Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2021, 118(44), e2111790118.

510. Zhao, D.; Chen, J.; Wang, B.; Wang, G.; Chen, Z.; Yu, J.; Guo, X.; Huang, W.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Engineering Intrinsic Flexibility in Polycrystalline Molecular Semiconductor Films by Grain Boundary Plasticization. J. Am. Chem. Soc.2020, 142, 5487-5492.

509. Guo, X.; Facchetti, A. The journey of conducting polymers from discovery to application. Nat. Mater. 2020, 19, 922-928.

508. Wang, B.; Thukral, A.; Xie, Z.; Liu, L.; Zhang, X.; Huang, W.; Yu, X.; Yu, C.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Flexible and stretchable metal oxide nanofiber networks for multimodal and monolithically integrated wearable electronics. Nat. Commun. 2020, 11, 2405.

507. Liao, C.-Y.; Chen, Y.; Lee, C.-C.; Wang, G.; Teng, N.-W.; Lee, C.-H.; Li, W.-L.; Chen, Y.-K.; Li, C.-H.; Ho, H.-L.; Tan, P. H.-S.; Wang, B.; Huang, Y.-C.; Young, R. M.; Wasielewski, M. R.; Marks, T. J.; Chang, Y.-M.; Facchetti, A. Processing Strategies for an Organic Photovoltaic Module with over 10% Efficiency. Joule 2020, 4, 189-206.

480. Wang, B.; Facchetti, A. Mechanically Flexible Conductors for Stretchable and Wearable E-Skin and E-Textile Devices. Adv. Mater. (Weinheim, Ger.) 2019, 31(28), 1901408.

479. Demirel, G.; Gieseking, R. L. M.; Ozdemir, R.; Kahmann, S.; Loi, M. A.; Schatz, G. C.; Facchetti, A.; Usta, H. Molecular engineering of organic semiconductors enables noble metal-comparable SERS enhancement and sensitivity. Nat. Commun. 2019, 10, 5502.

453. Huang, W.; Guo, P.; Zeng, L.; Li, R.; Wang, B.; Wang, G.; Zhang, X.; Chang, R. P. H.; Yu, J.; Bedzyk, M. J.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Metal Composition and Polyethylenimine Doping Capacity Effects on Semiconducting Metal Oxide-Polymer Blend Charge Transport. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140(16), 5457-5473.

452. Zhang, J; Tan, H. S.; Guo, X.; Facchetti, A.; Yan, H. Material insights and challenges for non-fullerene organic solar cells based on small molecular acceptors Nature Energy 2018, 3, 720–731.

451. Wang, S.; Sun, H.; Erdmann, T.; Wang, G.; Fazzi, D.; Lappan, U.; Puttisong, Y.; Chen, Z.; Berggren, M.; Crispin, X.; Kiriy, A.; Voit, B.; Marks, T. J.; Fabiano, S.; Facchetti, A. A Chemically Doped Naphthalenediimide-Bithiazole Polymer for n-Type Organic Thermoelectrics. Adv. Mater. 2018, 1801898.

423. Liang, Y.; Jing, Y.; Gheytani, S.; Lee, K.-Y.; Liu, P.; Facchetti, A.; Yao, Y. A. Universal quinone electrodes for long cycle life aqueous rechargeable batteries. Nat. Mater. 2017, 16, 918-924.

422. Yilmaz, M.; Babur,E.; Özdemir, M.; Pekyilmaz, D.; Dede, Y.; Tamer, U.; Facchetti, A.; Usta, H.; Demirel, G. Nanostructured Superhydrophobic Organic Semiconductor Films for Ultrasensitive Molecular Detection with Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy. Nat. Mater. 2017, 16, 918-924.

398 Facchetti, A. Polymers make charge flow easy. Nature (London, U. K.) 2016, 539, 499-500.

397 Yu, X.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Metal oxides for optoelectronic applications. Nat. Mater. 2016, 15, 383-396.

358 Yu, X.; Zhou, N.; Lin, H.; Guo, P.; Smith, J.; Yu, J.; Chang, R. P. H.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. New Route to Solution Processed Metal Oxide Transistors via Spray Combustion Synthesis (SCS). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2015, 112(11), 3217-3222.

334 Usta, H.; Sheets, W. C.; Denti, M.; Generali, G.; Capelli, R.; Lu, S.; Yu, X.; Muccini, M.; Facchetti, A. Perfluoroalkyl-Functionalized Thiazole-Thiophene Oligomers as N-Channel Semiconductors in Organic Field-Effect and Light-Emitting Transistors. Chem. Mater.2014, 26(22), 6542-6556

266. Facchetti, A.; Marocchi, A.; Vaccaro, L. "Semiconducting Polymers via Direct Arylation Polycondensation" Angew. Chem. Inter. Ed.2012, 51, 3520-3523.

265. Usta, H.; Newman, C.; Chen, Z.H.; Facchetti, A. "Dithienocoronenediimide-Based Copolymers as Novel Ambipolar Semiconductors for Organic Thin-Film Transistors" Adv. Mater. 2012, 24, 3678-3684.

203. Capelli, R.; Toffanin, S.; Generali, G.; Usta, H.; Facchetti, A.; Muccini, M. "Organic light-emitting transistors with an efficiency that outperforms the equivalent light-emitting diodes" Nature Mater. 2010, 9, 496-503.

202. Ono, S.; Minder, N.; Chen, Z.; Facchetti, A.; Morpurgo A. F. "High-performance n-type organic field-effect transistors with ionic liquid gates" Appl. Phys. Lett. 2010, 97(14), 143307/1-143307/3.

171. Yan, H.; Chen, Z.; Zheng, Y.; Newman, C. E.; Quin, J. Dolz, F.; Kastler, M.; Facchetti, A. “A high-mobility electron-transporting polymer for printed transistors” Nature 2009, 457, 679-686.

170. Rivnay, J.; Jimison, L. H., Northrup, J. E.; Toney, M. F.; Noriega, R.; Lu, S.; Marks, T.J.; Facchetti. A.; Salleo, A. “Large modulation of carrier transport by grain-boundary molecular packing and microstructure in organic thin films” Nature Mater. 2009, 8(12), 952-958.
 

Education
  • 09/98-12/99 Postdoctoral Fellow in Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University. Supervisior: Prof. Tobin J. Marks. 
  • 04/97-08/98 Postdoctoral Fellow in Physical Organic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of California at Berkeley. Supervisor: Prof. Andrew Streitwieser. 
  • 11/93-11/97 Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of Milano. Advisor: Prof. Giorgio A. Pagani. 
  • 09/86-05/93 Laurea in Chemistry (110/110 with honors), University of Milano. 
  • 09/81-06/86 Diploma in Industrial Chemistry, A. Righi Institute.
Awards

Awards and Honors

  • 2023 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
  • 2023 2023 CAS REGISTRY® Innovator
  • 2023 Highly Cited Researcher 2023
  • 2022 Highly Cited Researcher 2022
  • 2021 Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences
  • 2021 Highly Cited Researcher 2021
  • 2021 Industry Era 10Best CTOs
  • 2020 Highly Cited Researcher 2020
  • 2019 Advanced Materials Hall of Fame
  • 2019 Highly Cited Researcher 2019
  • 2018 Highly Cited Researcher 2018
  • 2017 Giulio Natta Gold Medal of the Italian Chemical Society
  • 2017 Chemistry of Materials 1K Club Member
  • 2017 Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher
  • 2016 National Academy of Inventors, Fellow
  • 2016 Chemistry of Materials Reviewer Award
  • 2016 Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher
  • 2016 American Chemical Society (ACS) Award for Creative Invention
  • 2016 Fellow of the ACS Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering
  • 2015 Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher
  • 2014 Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher
  • 2013 Fellow of the Materials Research Society
  • 2012 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
  • 2011 R&D FlexTech Award
  • 2011 Selected Among "TOP 100 MATERIALS SCIENTISTS OF THE PAST DECADE (2000-2010)", Thomson Reuters
  • 2010 IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe 2010 Award for the Development of Organic Materials
  • 2010 Fellow of the Kavli National Science Foundation
  • 2009 SCI (Italian Chemical Society) Research Prize
  • 1986 Farchemia Award to the Best Student in Industrial Chemistry

SERVICES

  • 2023 Member of the Board of Directors, Materials Research Society
  • 2023 Associate Editor of the Journal of Materials Chemistry C
  • 2023 Associate Editor of Materials Advances
  • 2023 Advisory Committee Member MRS-J: Grand Meeting 2023
  • 2023 ECME International Advisory Board
  • 2022 Chair for the International Conference on Frontier Materials 2022
  • 2022 International Advisory Board member of Small Science
  • 2021 Editorial Board Member of Advanced Materials
  • 2021 Editorial Board Member of Materials Horizons
  • 2020 Chair of the Scientific Board, Large-area, Organic & Printed Electronics Convention (LOPEC) 2020
  • 2019 Chair for the Organic Photonics and Electronics, OMTA
  • 2019 Chair of the Scientific Board, Large-area, Organic & Printed Electronics Convention (LOPEC) 2019
  • 2018 Editorial Board Member of Materials Today Sustainability
  • 2018 Chair of the Scientific Board, Large-area, Organic & Printed Electronics Convention (LOPEC) 2018
  • 2018 Editorial Board Member of EnergyChem
  • 2017 Chair of the Scientific Board, Large-area, Organic & Printed Electronics Convention (LOPEC) 2017
  • 2017 Co-organizer of the Symposium "Advanced Polymers Semiconductors: Key Properties and High Performance Electronics" 2018 MRS Meeting
  • 2017 Editorial Board Member of Applied Sciences
  • 2017 Committee Member of the AMD section of IMID2017
  • 2016 International Advisory Board of ChemSusChem
  • 2016 Co-organizer of the Symposium "Organic Semiconductor Materials" in International Confreres on Flexible and Printed Electronics 2016 (ICFPE2016), Yonezawa, Japan
  • 2016 Advisory Board of European Advanced Materials Congress, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 2015 Editorial Advisory Board of Applied Materials Today
  • 2015 Co-organizer of the Symposium "Advanced Materials for Photonics and Electronics: Fundamentals and Applications" Pacifichem Conference, Hawaii, USA
  • 2015 International Advisory Board Member, 13th European Conference of Molecular Electronics (ECME)
  • 2015 Large Area printed Electronics 2015 Scientific Board Member
  • 2015 Co-organizer of the Symposium " Molecularly Ordered Organic and Polymer Semiconductors: Fundamentals and Devices" Material Research Society Meeting, Boston, USA
  • 2015 Scientific Board Member, Large-area, Organic & Printed Electronics Convention (LOPEC) 2015
  • 2014 SPIE Meeting, Organic Photovoltaics XV Symposium Organizer
  • 2014 International Advisory Board Member of the International Fall School on Organic Electronics, Moscow, Russia
  • 2013 Editorial Advisory Board of AIMS Materials Science
  • 2013 International Advisory Board Member of the Symposium FG “Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conversion: Silicon and Beyond” of the 6th Forum on New Materials, Montecatini Terme, Italy
  • 2013 Associate Editor of Indian Journal of Materials Science
  • 2013 Co-organizer of the Symposium "Spin dynamics on organic semiconductor materials " Material Research Society Meeting, San Francisco, USA
  • 2012 Funding Editor of the journal "Organic Photonics and Photovoltaics"
  • 2012 Industrial Advisory Board, International conference on the Science and Technology of Synthetic Metals, Georgia Institute of Technology.
  • 2012 Co-organizer of the Symposium " Single-Crystalline Organic and Polymer Semiconductors: Fundamentals and Devices " Material Research Society Meeting, Boston, USA
  • 2012 Co-organizer of the “International Symposium on Organic Transistors and Functional Interfaces -FET 2012”, Princeton, USA
  • 2012 Co-organizer of the Workshop " Organic Electronics and Photonics. From Single Crystals to Amorphous Films " Okinawa, Japan
  • 2011 Associate Editor of International Journal of Analytical Chemistry
  • 2011 Co-organizer of the Symposium " Charge Generation/Transport in Organic Semiconductor Materials" Material Research Society Meeting, Boston, USA
  • 2011 Editorial Advisory Board of Journal of Applied Polymer Science
  • 2010 Co-organizer of “International Symposium on Organic Transistors and Functional Interfaces -FET 2010”, Les Diablerets, Switzerland
  • 2007 Co-organizer of Symposium on “Polymeric and Molecular Materials for Opto-Electronics (233rd ACS National Meeting, PMSE Division), Chicago (USA)
Research Interests
  1. Printed/Flexible/Stretchable/Sustainable Organic Electronics. A rapidly advancing area of technological and basic research is “flexible electronics”-- in particular, organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) based on organic small molecule and polymeric semiconductor, dielectric and conductor materials. OTFTs based on such advanced components have been proposed for several uses, such as flexible/bendable displays for commercial and military applications (rolling maps, soldier electronic textile), radio-frequency identification tags, smart cards, and sensors. The main goal of the present research is to design, synthesize, and characterize novel organic (semi)conductors and dielectrics for the above applications that will compete with the current inorganic technology based on silicon TFTs as well as create new TFT platforms for novel applications. A key aspect of this project is to enhance sustainability and reduce the carbon footprint for the preparation of electronic materials and in the fabrication of electronic devices.
  2. Organic and Thin-Film Photovoltaic Cells. Photovoltaic (PV) cells based on organic photoactive thin-film materials offer the promise of large-scale manufacture for producing cheap solar electricity with low-cost, light-weight, non-toxic, and earth-abundant materials. A major step to enable this technology will come from the rational engineering of photoactive polymeric materials with tailored electronic structures and orbital energetics to optimize: light absorption, exciton splitting, active layer charge transport, interfaces for photocurrent collection, and film processing. Furthermore, an essential goal is to achieve ductile solar cells and modules for integration with flexible and stretchable devices.
  3. Transparent/Solution Processable Metal Oxide (MO) Electronics. Transparent electronics is a technology aiming at producing “invisible” electronic circuits and devices. Applications include consumer electronics and transportation. For example, automobile windshields could transmit visual information. Glass in almost any setting could also double as an electronic device, possibly improving security systems or transparent displays. As for the conventional Si/GaAs electronics, the basic circuit structure is based on the thin-film transistor. However, the transistor building block materials, the semiconductor, the dielectric, and the conductor, must now be transparent in the visible. Therefore, the main scientific goal of this technology is to discover, understand, and implement transparent high-performance materials and their high-yield implementation in transistor/circuit structures. Furthermore, if these materials can be solution-processed, a venue to high-performance, transparent, and inexpensive electronic circuits and devices can be opened.
  4. Polymers for Energy Storage. The rapidly and globally increasing demand for energy results in challenges concerning not only the conversion but also the storage of electrical energy. Batteries, fuel cells, and supercapacitors have been the focus of considerable research due to their key role regarding “portable energy”, as well as the rapid development of active radio-frequency identification (aRFID) tags, integrated-circuit smart cards, mobile sensor systems, smart clothes, electric vehicles, and grid-level energy storage. In all these key technologies, the relatively poor battery performance of existing energy storage systems represents the major bottleneck. In this area our goals are to develop unconventional materials, particularly organic polymers, to enhance battery performance and enable implementation in light/flexible devices.
  5. SERS Sensors. The identification and quantitative determination of ultra-low concentrations of chemical and biological molecules is relevant in several fields including medical diagnostic, environmental science, and homeland security. Conventional routes to analyte detection rely on optical, electrochemical, electronic, and gravimetric methodologies. Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an ideal surface-sensitive technique allowing non-destructive molecular analysis with high sensitivity and selectivity approaching single-to-few molecules detection. Here we are using organic semiconductors as SERS-active platforms and investigate their integration into different sensor architectures.
  6. Organic Mixed Ionic-Electronic Conductors and Bioelectronics. Organic mixed ionic–electronic conductors (OMIECs) are materials that conduct both ions and electronic charge carriers (electrons and/or holes) and are the key components of organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). These devices are transistors operating at very low voltage and exhibit large transconductance (signal amplification). Since ions are need for their operation and because biology uses ions for signaling, OECTs are ideal candidates to interface electronic devices with biology. Thus, in this project we design and synthesize new OMIEC materials, investigated details of their charge transport properties, fabricate and invent new OECT architectures and we apply them for new type of OECT circuits embedding driving, sensor and neuromorphic functions.
  7. N-Doping of Organic Semiconductors. The doping of inorganic materials has been instrumental in the progress of the semiconductor industry. For organics (soft matter), several strategies have yielded doped π-electron solids with greatly enhanced opto-electronic properties as well as novel materials, physical phenomena, and device concepts, supporting the commercialization of PEDOT:PSS, OLEDs, and other materials technologies. However, these advances were largely enabled by p-doped (hole transporting) materials, while useful n-doped (electron-transporting) materials have been limited in chemical accessibility, doping efficiency, electron mobility and conductivity. This limits their introduction in several opto-electronic devices where both p-type and n-type (semi)conductors are required. Research goals in this topic include to explore new organic semiconductors, dopants, and catalysts to elucidate the mechanism of the catalytic n-doping process, expand the scope to other type of catalysts and integrate catalyzed-doped materials into devices.