Dr. Chad Risko | Department of Chemistry (University of Kentucky)
Event Date:
March 2, 2017 – 3:30 PM
Location:
Burson 115
Event Date:
March 2, 2017 – 3:30 PM
Location:
Burson 115
Ph.D Nanoscale Science Seminar Series | Spring 2017
Chad Risko, Ph.D.
University of Kentucky
Department of Chemistry
will be presenting
“Developing Theory-Driven Approaches to Design Organic Semiconducting Materials”
Abstract:
Semiconducting materials derived from organic, π-conjugated molecules or polymers have drawn the attention of materials chemists for decades because of the potential to modulate material (opto)electronic properties through well-established synthetic chemistry methods. Unfortunately, materials design remains highly Edisonian, due to limited knowledge among the intimate relationships that connect chemical composition and molecular architecture, material processing, and the solid-state packing arrangements that define the underlying physicochemical processes that determine material performance. We seek to address these connections through the development and application of multiscale, theoretical materials chemistry approaches that build upon principles from organic and physical chemistry, condensed matter physics, and materials science. In this presentation, we will focus on how these models can reveal the striking influence of seemingly modest changes in chemical structure on the solid-state packing of organic semiconducting active layers and resulting characteristics of importance to charge-carrier transport. The chemical insight developed through these investigations is beginning to refine and offer novel design paradigms essential to the development of next generation organic semiconducting active layers and is opening new pathways for in silico materials development.
Bio:
Dr. Chad Risko is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kentucky and a faculty researcher at the Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER). Dr. Risko obtained his B.S. degree in Chemistry and Environmental Technology and Management, magna cum laude, from Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas. He received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. After postdoctoral research at Northwestern University, Dr. Risko was a Senior Research Scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology before heading to the University of Kentucky in 2014. His current research aims to develop and apply theoretical materials chemistry methods to study fundamental physicochemical processes in the bulk and at the interface of materials of interest for energy conversion and storage and (opto)electronics applications. These research efforts are currently funded by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. For his early career research achievements, Dr. Risko was selected as a 2016 Emerging Investigator by the Journal of Materials Chemistry, a Royal Society of Chemistry publication.