David Savastano, Editor08.27.14
We have seen a lot of laboratory-scale research on organic and printed electronics being successfully conducted in the leading institutes worldwide. Many of these research institutes are now scaling up their facilities to learn more about the potential for commercialization.
The Georgia Tech Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (Georgia Tech-COPE) announced the opening of its new facility, located on the second floor of the Molecular Science and Engineering (MoSE) building. The focus of the facility is on the synthesis of organic molecular and polymeric electronic and active materials on larger scales.
Seth Marder, founding director and associate director of COPE, noted that the new facility allows COPE to produce materials in multi-gram quantities.
“This allows for the system-level testing necessary to evaluate materials for commercial applications,” Marder said. “The facility will serve the Georgia Tech community, government labs and companies. This will accelerate the adoption and transfer of organic electronic and active materials into new products.”
Marder said that the key elements of the new facility are glassware and equipment specifically designed to handle volumes of material not possible in conventional research setting.
“These include a 10 liter reactor, 20 liter rotary evaporator to deal with large volumes of solvents and large chromatography columns to purify chemicals on a scale that is 10 to 1000 times that normally experienced in the lab,” Marder added.
Marder said that Georgia Tech was recently awarded a grant specifically dedicated to scale-up of high performing materials as part of the Center for Advanced Organic Photovoltaics Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI).
“This grant aligns well with the strategic vision of the scale-up facility,” he added. “Larger amounts of promising materials will be provided to allow device scientists and engineers the opportunity to perform more comprehensive studies at several U.S. and international institutions, enabling a deeper understanding of the fundamental reasons why a particular material’s performance is improved, and in turn will likely enable further advances.”
COPE was formed in 2003, and has developed new technologies in fields such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and power. During the past 11 years, the university has continued to expand its collaborations. Once such distribution agreement is with Aldrich.
“Georgia Tech and Aldrich have recently signed an agreement that allows Aldrich to distribute materials that have been synthesized within COPE to the materials community,” Marder reported. “It is the intention that this arrangement will facilitate technology transfer by allowing researchers at a variety of institutions to readily access COPE developed materials for testing on different materials systems and devices.
“COPE is also in discussions with several companies in Asia and Europe, where the ability to provide materials on gram scale quantities is being warmly received,” he added. “In addition, members of COPE have provided materials in multi-gram quantities to researchers in national laboratories and a variety of academic institutions around the world, including Princeton University, University of California – Santa Barbara, University of Arizona, University of Washington, Imperial College London, Oxford University, Cambridge University, Humboldt University in Berlin, KAUST and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to name a few.”
Bernard Kippelen, director of COPE, noted that the new facility allows COPE’s researchers to play a larger role in organic and printed electronics field, a field loaded with opportunities for growth.
“In the years to come, printed organic electronics will continue to mature through continuous progress in core application areas, including organic photovoltaics for mobile power generation, flexible displays, organic light-emitting devices for solid-state lighting and signage, low cost and highly conformable electronic circuits and systems, and integrated smart systems for health monitoring, smart buildings and improved infrastructure. The rate of adoption of this technology will heavily rely on the training of a workforce that meets the industry’s needs, an improved standardization of device characterization and quality control, and an accelerated transfer of proof-of-principle laboratory scale devices to pilot manufacturing lines that can lead to full-scale manufacturing.
“Simultaneously, because of the unique properties of soft electronic semiconductors and the low energy requirements for the manufacturing of devices compared to more traditional inorganic materials, printed electronics is likely to find new applications in areas such as bioengineering,” Kippelen added. “In all application areas, sustainability and low environmental impact will become key factors in the future of printed electronics, and the use of naturally derived materials will create new opportunities for disruptive innovations.”
The Georgia Tech Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (Georgia Tech-COPE) announced the opening of its new facility, located on the second floor of the Molecular Science and Engineering (MoSE) building. The focus of the facility is on the synthesis of organic molecular and polymeric electronic and active materials on larger scales.
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“This allows for the system-level testing necessary to evaluate materials for commercial applications,” Marder said. “The facility will serve the Georgia Tech community, government labs and companies. This will accelerate the adoption and transfer of organic electronic and active materials into new products.”
Marder said that the key elements of the new facility are glassware and equipment specifically designed to handle volumes of material not possible in conventional research setting.
“These include a 10 liter reactor, 20 liter rotary evaporator to deal with large volumes of solvents and large chromatography columns to purify chemicals on a scale that is 10 to 1000 times that normally experienced in the lab,” Marder added.
Marder said that Georgia Tech was recently awarded a grant specifically dedicated to scale-up of high performing materials as part of the Center for Advanced Organic Photovoltaics Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI).
“This grant aligns well with the strategic vision of the scale-up facility,” he added. “Larger amounts of promising materials will be provided to allow device scientists and engineers the opportunity to perform more comprehensive studies at several U.S. and international institutions, enabling a deeper understanding of the fundamental reasons why a particular material’s performance is improved, and in turn will likely enable further advances.”
COPE was formed in 2003, and has developed new technologies in fields such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and power. During the past 11 years, the university has continued to expand its collaborations. Once such distribution agreement is with Aldrich.
“Georgia Tech and Aldrich have recently signed an agreement that allows Aldrich to distribute materials that have been synthesized within COPE to the materials community,” Marder reported. “It is the intention that this arrangement will facilitate technology transfer by allowing researchers at a variety of institutions to readily access COPE developed materials for testing on different materials systems and devices.
“COPE is also in discussions with several companies in Asia and Europe, where the ability to provide materials on gram scale quantities is being warmly received,” he added. “In addition, members of COPE have provided materials in multi-gram quantities to researchers in national laboratories and a variety of academic institutions around the world, including Princeton University, University of California – Santa Barbara, University of Arizona, University of Washington, Imperial College London, Oxford University, Cambridge University, Humboldt University in Berlin, KAUST and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to name a few.”
Bernard Kippelen, director of COPE, noted that the new facility allows COPE’s researchers to play a larger role in organic and printed electronics field, a field loaded with opportunities for growth.
“In the years to come, printed organic electronics will continue to mature through continuous progress in core application areas, including organic photovoltaics for mobile power generation, flexible displays, organic light-emitting devices for solid-state lighting and signage, low cost and highly conformable electronic circuits and systems, and integrated smart systems for health monitoring, smart buildings and improved infrastructure. The rate of adoption of this technology will heavily rely on the training of a workforce that meets the industry’s needs, an improved standardization of device characterization and quality control, and an accelerated transfer of proof-of-principle laboratory scale devices to pilot manufacturing lines that can lead to full-scale manufacturing.
“Simultaneously, because of the unique properties of soft electronic semiconductors and the low energy requirements for the manufacturing of devices compared to more traditional inorganic materials, printed electronics is likely to find new applications in areas such as bioengineering,” Kippelen added. “In all application areas, sustainability and low environmental impact will become key factors in the future of printed electronics, and the use of naturally derived materials will create new opportunities for disruptive innovations.”
