International Symposium: New Materials For Organic Electronics

An international symposium focussed on the use of new materials in organic electronics will be held at Heidelberg University the 29th and 30th of June, 2018. The event will be hosted by the "N-Heteropolycycles as Functional Materials" Collaborative Research Centre (CRC 1249) Approximately 120 participants are expected to attend the two-day symposium, entitled "Materials for Organic Electronics: Synthesis, Spectroscopy and Theory", to discuss the latest developments in this pioneering field of modern technology. In addition to members of CRC 1249, leading researchers in the field from Europe and North America will also speak at the symposium.

As chemist Lutz H. Gade explains, the researchers of the Heidelberg collaborative research centre work with functional materials based on a large and widely variable class of special hydrocarbon compounds. Since these organic semiconductors are "soft" and can be processed at low temperatures, flexible media such as plastic foil can be used as supports for electronic components. "Even though there is already a flurry of research activities in this field, targeted access to new substance classes with specific material properties remains a major challenge," stresses Prof. Gade, spokesperson for CRC 1249. The symposium’s programme will also feature poster sessions by CRC and outside research groups to present their latest results.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has funded the "N-Heteropolycycles as Functional Materials" Collaborative Research Centre since January 2017. The work of CRC 1249 ranges from the fundamentals of molecular chemistry to the question of how molecular characteristics are reflected in the properties of the materials, which in turn determine the performance of electronic components. The research consortium closely combines theory and experimental methods to clarify the essential structure-property relationships. In addition to scientists from Heidelberg University, research groups from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart are also involved in the network.