| Blog | Archive | QR Code | RSS | Archive | Tag Cloud | Videos | Widget | XML |
Alan J. Heeger, Conductive Polymers, and Plastic Solar CellsResources with Additional Information · Patents · Videos After receiving 'his physics Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley in 1961, [Alan J.] Heeger would spend the next 20 years teaching the subject at the University of Pennsylvania – while also designing and then launching one of the nation's premiere scientific think tanks: the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter. ![]() Courtesy of Randy Lamb, UCSB It was there in the Penn experimental lab, during the fall and early winter of 1976, that Heeger and two colleagues would first begin to explore the possibility of manipulating "long chains of polymers" with an eye to "altering their properties" so that they could be coaxed into conducting electricity.'1 The 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry honors Dr. Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid, and Hideki Shirakawa for their 'discovery that plastics, or polymers, can be made to conduct electricity much like metals. This finding turned on its head the conventional wisdom that polymers could not conduct electricity, and unleashed a flurry of new research among physicists, chemists, and materials scientists worldwide. Polymers are molecular chains with a regularly repeating structure. For a polymer to conduct electric current, it must consist alternately of single and double bonds between the carbon atoms. It must also be "doped," which means that electrons are removed (through oxidation) or introduced (through reduction). These "holes," or extra electrons, can move along the molecule, making it electrically conductive. Drs. MacDiarmid, Heeger, and Shirakawa were responsible for the 1977 synthesis and the electrical and chemical doping of polyacetylene, the prototypical conducting polymer, and the rediscovery of polyaniline, now the foremost industrial conducting polymer.'2 Heeger has recently conducted research in 'the development of low-cost, highly efficient plastic solar cells … . The cells, made from organic materials, exhibit the highest energy-conversion rating for such devices. … [Heeger sees] the discovery of ultrafast photo-induced electron transfer as the foundation of a technology for low-cost solar cells.'3 1 Edited excerpts from Life on the Cutting Edge, University of Nebraska Resources with Additional InformationAdditional information about Alan Heeger, conductive polymers, and plastic solar cells is available in electronic documents and on the Web. Documents:One-Dimensional Phonons and "Phase-Ordering" Phase Transition in Hg3-deltaAsF6, Physical Review Letters Vol. 39, Issue 23: 1484-1487; December 5, 1977 Electrical Conductivity in Doped Polyacetylene, Physical Review Letters Vol. 39, Issue 17:1098-1101; October 24, 1977 Polyacetylene, (CH){sub x}, as an Emerging Material for Solar Cell Applications. Final Technical Report, March 19, 1979 - March 18, 1980, DOE Technical Report, 1980 Subgap Absorption in Conjugated Polymers; DOE Technical Report; 1991 Measurements of Photo-induced Changes in Conjugated Polymers; DOE Technical Report; 1991 Additional Web Pages:Focus: Nobel Focus: Electricity through Plastic, American Physical Society (APS) Alan Heeger, the Institute for Energy Efficiency, University of California Santa Barbara Center for Polymers and Organic Solids, co-established by Alan Heeger, UC Santa Barbara OPN Talks with Alan J. Heeger, Optics and Photonics News Guide to Alan J. Heeger Papers Higher Efficiency Organic Solar Cell Created by UCSB Nobel Laureate and Research Team Videos:Nobel Lecture by Alan Heeger, nobelprize.org (video) Interview with Alan Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa, nobelprize.org (video) Alan Heeger - Science Video Interview, Vega.org (video) Next Generation Solar Cells; Production and Storage: Toward a More Efficient Use of Renewable Energy Sources (video) Low Cost “Plastic” Solar Cells; Emerging Energies Technology Summit 2007: Session Two: Renewable Energy and the Hydrogen Economy, Program 1 (video) Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.
|