Organic Growth Divide Between the Inorganic and the Biologi- Cal, Monitoring for Pollution Or Food Pathogens, for Example

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can be manufactured at a fraction of the cost of standard silicon solar panels. “I really like understanding the photo COVEME physics and how it behaves,” says Reineke. But there is an added bonus to building tangible devices that produce light or electricity, rather than working on chemical formulae or nanotechnology. “You do something that you can show to your parents and your grandparents,” he says, adding that seeing one’s research efforts culminate in a product is “really cool”. Researchers in organic electronics deal with carbon-based polymers and small molecules, and seek to replicate the functionality of inorganic semiconductors, and develop innovative devices. The field’s first success was in OLEDs for displays, used in smart phones. It is now moving into large-screen televisions, led by DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware, which announced on 2 November that it has licensed its active-matrix OLED technology to an unnamed Asian manufacturer. Within a few years, OLEDs may also penetrate the lighting market, as one of the technologies vying to replace the inefficient incandescent bulbs being phased out in the United States and the European Union, among other places. OLEDs not only use less energy, but also offer intriguing ways to illuminate buildings, with wall-sized fixtures or tunable colours. Thin-film microprocessors made from organic semiconductors could lower costs. Less far advanced are organic solar cells, which are printable, flexible, and cheap; and ELECTRONICS better batteries for electric vehicles and renewable-energy storage. Also on the horizon are flexible circuits printed on plastic or textiles, bendable batteries and sensors that bridge the Organic growth divide between the inorganic and the biologi- cal, monitoring for pollution or food pathogens, for example. Organic electronics may also one The multifaceted field of carbon-based electronics offers day enable cheaper radio-frequency identifica- options for researchers from all areas of the physical sciences. tion tags, or innovative thin-film transistors for touch screens. Governments are funding research into the field, enticed by the environ- BY NEIL SAVAGE Reineke, who did a PhD in physics at the mental benefits. Institute of Applied Photophysics at the Tech- hen Sebastian Reineke sought a nical University of Dresden in Germany, pre- VARIED EXPERIENCE postdoctoral position in organic fers academic to industrial research and hopes Researchers come from a variety of back- electronics, the field offered what to tackle some fundamental questions about grounds: chemical and electrical engineer- Wmany science and technology graduates covet: organic electronic devices. He ended up doing ing, materials science, physics and chemistry. choices. He could have marketed his skills in his postdoc in a soft-semiconductor group at They develop and synthesize materials that improving the efficiency of organic light-emit- the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in have desirable optical and electrical proper- ting diodes (OLEDs) and solar cells to a big Cambridge, where he is working on two of the ties — such as emitting or absorbing light at manufacturer of displays, such as LG in Seoul main research areas for organic electronics — desired wavelengths, carrying current effi- or Toshiba in Tokyo; a lighting company, such as improving OLEDs to the point at which they ciently or operating at appropriate voltages. Philips in Amsterdam; or any number of smaller can be used to light homes and offices, and Researchers also design ways of using those companies or university labs around the world. developing organic photovoltaic devices, which materials in practical devices, and develop

manufacturing methods. The materials have to be made reliably — organics are notori- OE-A ous for having their properties altered by con- tamination. And production processes have to take into account the specifics of the materials and keep costs down. “There are fantastic physics and materials- science questions in the field,” says Stephen Forrest, director of the optoelectronic compo- nents and materials group at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. And addressing those questions requires a diverse set of skills. Forrest insists that researchers who join his group with expertise in one area of science must have at least a passing knowledge of the other fields involved; and they should know how to build devices and analyse them from a basic physics viewpoint. “If you’re a chemical engineer, it helps you if you know the physics of charge transport, say, or how a transistor works,” he Flexible organic photovoltaic cells will be cheaper and more environmentally friendly than silicon ones. says. “You don’t have to be an expert in every- thing, but you have to know about it.” materials with a know-how or an understanding in printing, in engineering, in electronics,” says Researchers often have multidisciplinary of organic materials, those would be the people Klaus Hecker, managing director of the OE-A. backgrounds. Noel Giebink, who is taking up to hire,” he says. “There are not many of them.” Environmentalism motivates many an electrical-engineering post at Pennsylvania Jobseekers in other sectors may have at researchers. “One of the enduring challenges State University in University Park, has under- least some of the requisite skills. Julie Brown, of our generation and the generation to come graduate degrees in physics and engineering chief technical officer of Universal Display in will be how we use energy to power our society science. After a PhD in electrical engineering Ewing, New Jersey, has found herself trying to and have a limited impact on our environment, at Princeton University in New Jersey, he “sort lure synthetic chemists away from the pharma- on the place where we live,” says Dan Gaspar, of fell into organic electronics” while working ceutical industry, because of their experience who works on OLED lighting at the Pacific on photovoltaics. He is interested in increasing with organic chemistry. To interest them in her Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, efficiency by combining the light-manipulating company, which has concentrated on OLEDs Washington. A switch to OLEDs and inorganic properties of some organics with the electrical for displays but is now tackling lighting, she has light-emitting diodes could cut US demand for properties of inorganic semiconductors, per- to overcome misconceptions about the field. electricity used in lighting by 25%, according haps using organic materials to capture photons “They hear ‘organic electronics’ and they think to the US Department of Energy (DOE). Like- and convert them to wavelengths that a silicon they have to be engineers”, but that isn’t true, she wise, cheaper photovoltaics could encourage solar cell can handle. says. “They need to be able to be interested in the use of solar energy, reducing demand for

Even self-teaching talking to engineers.” oil and emissions of greenhouse gases. And PNNL can provide useful Sirringhaus points out that organic materials, background. Henning TARGETED TRAINING unlike some inorganic semiconductors, don’t Sirringhaus, head of This need for an in-depth, broad skill set has generally contain elements that are toxic or microelectronics and inspired an interdisciplinary master’s degree require mining in remote areas. “There are not optoelectronics at the programme in molecular and organic electron- really any environmental issues from a materi- University of Cam- ics at the Technical University of Dresden, to als perspective,” he says. bridge, UK, trained start in autumn 2012. Karl Leo, an optoelec- as a semiconductor tronics researcher at the university, believes RAMPING UP physicist. One of the that it is the first such course. The programme The lure of energy-efficient and renewable first things he did “One of the will be offered in English and will be available technologies has spurred various government- when he moved into enduring to international students, although Leo isn’t funded initiatives. The European Commis- organic electronics, challenges of yet sure how many places there will be. The sion (EC) supports such work, and countries he says, was to buy a our generation plan is to cover solid-state and semiconduc- such as Germany, the Netherlands, France, chemistry textbook will be how tor physics; techniques for depositing films Finland and the United Kingdom all have “just to learn the lan- we use energy of organic materials, such as the layers of an large national research programmes in light- guage”. Reineke, as a to power our OLED or a coating on a solar cell; how to meas- ing and photovoltaics. Last month, IMEC, a physicist, also finds it society.” ure the physical properties of materials, such as nanotechnology-research company in Leu- challenging to speak Dan Gaspar strength or electrical conductance; and model- ven, Belgium, launched X10D, a three-year, to chemists. When ling the function of a device such as an OLED. €11.9-million (US$16.1-million) international asking them to synthesize an unfamiliar mol- The Organic and Printed Electronics Associ- research programme to develop organic solar ecule, “it’s not just that you say, ‘I need another ation (OE-A), an international industry group cells that produce electricity at less than €0.70 red OLED. Please make me a red dye’”, he says. based in Frankfurt, Germany, has a working per watt. The company has also begun a three- He has to specify a variety of parameters, such group on education that is also pushing the idea year, €5.12-million programme to design large, as electrical conductance and charge transport. of bringing together different academic disci- power-adjustable OLED lighting tiles. The EC But there are opportunities for research- plines under the heading of organic electronics. is providing about two-thirds of the funding ers who can overcome such challenges, says It has been developing a template for master’s for both projects. Overall, the EC is spending Sirringhaus. “People who are able to com- programmes. “What the industry needs is more than €270 million on 90 research projects bine experience in manufacturing inorganic people with a broad knowledge in chemistry, covering organic electronics and photonics.

In the United States, the National Sci- ence Foundation (NSF) and the DOE fund research into lighting and cheaper pho- TURNING POINT tovoltaics. For instance, the NSF this year made a three-year, $1.25-million grant to the University of Denver in Colorado and John Nolan the University of Colorado at Boulder to study innovative materials for organic photovoltaics. Much of the DOE’s funding John Nolan, a vision scientist at Waterford goes through its laboratories, in particular Institute of Technology in Ireland, was the National Renewable Energy Labora- awarded a €1.5-million (US$2‑million), five- S. O’NEILL tory in Golden, Colorado, and Oak Ridge year starting grant by the European Research National Laboratory in Tennessee, which Council (ERC) in September — a first for a administers DOE postdoc fellowships. researcher from an institute of technology. The department is also running the Sun- Shot Initiative, which has budgeted $457 Describe your PhD experience. million to cut the cost of solar cells by 75% I graduated from Waterford Institute of within ten years — researchers are looking Technology in 2002 and applied to do a PhD at all photovoltaic technologies, including there, looking for links between nutrition and organics. SunShot offers two-year fellow- age-related macular degeneration, the lead- ships, based in Washington DC, with roll- ing cause of blindness. I was also interested ing application deadlines. in conducting population studies that might Industrial efforts are also generating help us to understand what makes someone job opportunities. Philips, for instance, fit or healthy. At the time, Ireland’s economy announced this year that it would spend was quite strong, so it was a big decision to some things. For example, I changed some of €40 million to expand its pilot production turn down better-paid positions. But it was the methodology and extended our study to line in Aachen, Germany, to make OLEDs the right decision. My graduate adviser and I young as well as older people. And I got exter- for lighting under the brand name Lumi- had an exceptional experience — publishing nal experts to assess and be critical of the pro- blade. Dietmar Thomas, a spokesman for our observations of the link between macular posal, which some scientists can find difficult. Lumiblade, says that the company will start pigment and age-related macular degeneration mass production by the end of next year, in more than 800 people in just two years. You could take the ERC funding anywhere. and expects OLEDs to penetrate house- Why stay at Waterford? hold lighting within two or three years. What has been your biggest turning point so far? If you have the right ideas, people and exper- Thomas says that the company plans to Without a doubt, it was winning a Fulbright tise, it doesn’t matter whether you are at the hire researchers in Aachen, as well as oth- scholarship to spend a year at the Medical Massachusetts Institute of Technology or ers to study OLED production processes College of Georgia in Augusta. It forced me at Waterford. I want to add to what we have at its research centre in Eindhoven, the to survive on my own. During that year, I achieved here. You always have to keep your Netherlands. “We are really talking about churned out publications on how the shape options open to change. But for now, I’ve a huge group of people that we are going and architecture of the eye affects performance agreed with the institute to represent them, to get into the company,” says Thomas, of the pigment. Once I returned to Ireland, I and I’m very proud to do that. although he declines to provide specific was appointed as a deputy director of the numbers. macular-pigment research group. What’s the single best thing you’ve done to Scientists have also been starting their establish your standing in the field? own companies for years. Sirringhaus and How much of a long shot was it to apply for the The one strength that I have is staying focused his colleagues, for instance, founded Plastic ERC award? on what I’m good at. There’s always a danger, Logic in Mountain View, California, which It is a very prestigious award given for excel- maybe even a temptation, for scientists to makes an e-reader based on flexible elec- lence in science. Awardees have to have a track keep moving into different fields. Ideas can tronics, and Eight19 in Cambridge, UK, record that shows they are capable of achiev- get fragmented. I think it’s great to collaborate, which is developing printed plastic solar ing their proposed blue-sky research idea. but sometimes, in big cooperative projects, cells. Forrest has been involved with several Typically, no more than 10% of applicants nobody takes responsibility. start-ups, including Universal Display. He get funding across the whole of Europe. With says that the field is rich enough for bud- such a low probability of success, some faculty How will you use this money? ding entrepreneurs to follow the path that members at Waterford were concerned that the My colleagues and I will be able to update our fits them best, from striking off on their effort would be for naught. infrastructure, hire five researchers and help own to spinning out technologies devel- to raise the profile of our group, which will be oped in university labs. How did you approach the ERC application? important so that we can continue to bring in The same goes for the field as a whole, I promised myself when I started the appli- funds. The idea is to use all the capital we have says Giebink: researchers are constantly cation that I was going to get it. I proposed to generate a centre of excellence for vision creating molecules with properties to be a study to find ways to optimize and enrich research. Our ultimate goal is to identify ways deciphered, and seeking applications for eye nutrition by dietary means, producing a to prevent blindness resulting from age-related them. “It’s a great place to be,” he says, direct impact on vision in the young normal macular degeneration, and to identify ways to “if you’re curious, if you’re motivated to population — by reducing issues of either glare optimize vision and visual performance for explore things and if you like to tinker.” ■ or bad contrast through diet — and protect- everyone — perhaps even helping footballers ing vision in older people. I had to give myself to see the ball better. ■ Neil Savage is a freelance writer based in enough time to write and critique the proposal Lowell, Massachusetts. — roughly a year — and prioritize and sacrifice INTERVIEW BY VIRGINIA GEWIN