Research Projects

Porous conjugated polymers (CPPs) possess unusual combination of properties such as extended conjugation, large physical surface areas, and good chemical and thermal stabilities. In recent years, porous conjugated polymers (CPPs) have been used for various exciting technological such as gas storage and separation, heterogeneous catalysis, photoluminescence-based sensing, energy storage devices and optoelectronic devices. Covalently bonded structure of CPPs is responsible for their stabilities. The permanent and stable porosity of CMPs enables a simple in-filling of some second conjugated molecules/polymers to give interpenetrating networks as bulk heterojunctions. This combination will be devoid of problem of phase separation. This property can be exploited for the creation of high performing solar cell devices. On the other hand, CPPs prepared by C-C bond forming reactions generally give intractable powder. Many organic electronic applications require these materials in the form of thin films; intractable powders are unsuitable for this purpose. Major challenges in this area are (i) synthesis of multifunctional tectons (monomers) to create CPPs with extended conjugation and fine-tuned porosities, (ii) synthesis of CPPs in the form of thin films, (iii) incorporation of second phase (acceptor conjugated molecules/polymers) inside the porous network of CPPs and (iv) application of these systems in the devices. In this project we will address these challenges by (i) synthesizing new thiophene based tectons for the creation of CPPs, (ii) Electrochemical polymerization of these multifunctional tectons into the electrode supported CPP films, (iii) incorporation of acceptor molecules inside the porous structure with the suitable frontier molecular orbital levels and at the end (iv) device study on these systems to prove the application of CPP thin films in photovoltaic devices.

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