Nanostructuring of photoactive conjugated polymer film blends

Jorge Morgado
Instituto de Telecomunicações and Department of Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Av. Rovisco Pais, P-1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
jorge.morgado@lx.it.pt, jmfmorgado@tecnico.ulisboa.pt


Polymer blends have a strong tendency to phase separate, a process driven by the low entropy of mixing, as explained by the Flory-Huggins theory. Conjugated polymers, by virtue of their semiconducting properties are at the core of the organic optoelectronics field. Conjugated polymers are being used in the replication of the plethora of traditional semiconducting devices, with gains in terms of processing costs, active areas, mechanical properties and bioelectronics/biomedical applications.
In some applications it is useful to combine different conjugated polymers and, in others, we rely of the use of assisting polymers to fabricate nanostructured films.
In this communication I will present an overview on the work we have been carrying out in our research group, namely, phase separation-induced nanostructuring of conjugated polymers films, with application in photovoltaic cells and memories, and on the control of light-emitting diodes emission, in particular for white light emission.
Financial support by FCT under the contract UID/EEA/50008/2013 is acknowledged.