Colloquium- The Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Design considerations for flexibility, stretchability, and robustness in next-generation thin-film electronics

Adam D. Printz

Assistant Professor

Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Arizona

Abstract

The primary goal of the fields concerned with solution-processable thin-film semiconductors is to produce devices with performance approaching that of silicon electronics, but at a greatly reduced cost. However, for these technologies to be commercially viable, significantly deeper understanding of their mechanical properties and behavior under stress is required. For example, organic semiconductors are often believed to be as deformable as conventional plastics; however, an inherent competition between mechanical deformability and charge transport has long been observed in these materials, and achieving the extreme (or even moderate) deformability implied by the word “plastic” concurrently with high charge transport may be elusive. I will discuss the relationship between mechanical deformability and charge transport in conjugated polymers, with a focus on the molecular and morphological determinants of mechanical deformability and charge transport, as well as how to decouple their mutual incompatibility.

Another solution-processed semiconductor, metal halide perovskites, are promising materials with applications in photovoltaics due to their high mobility, insensitivity to defects, and low fabrication cost; however, their ionic structure makes them inherently brittle, and their commercial viability requires substantial improvements in thermomechanical reliability. To address this challenge, I will describe a new concept in perovskite device architecture, the compound solar cell (CSC), which mechanically reinforces these fragile materials with lithographically patterned internal scaffolds.

Biosketch

Adam Printz is an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Arizona. He earned his Ph.D. in Nanoengineering from the University of California, San Diego under the supervision of Prof. Darren Lipomi. There, his research focused on the microstructure of organic semiconductors and its effects on the mechanical properties of polymer and bulk heterojunction thin films, and he was the recipient of the Chancellor’s Dissertation Medal for the Jacobs School of Engineering, the highest award given to graduating Ph.D. students. After completing his Ph.D., Adam worked as a postdoctoral scholar in the Materials Science and Engineering department at Stanford University under Prof. Reinhold Dauskardt, focusing primarily on improving the mechanical and chemical stability of perovskite solar cells. His research interests continue to be on the co-optimization of material stability with performance in thin-film solution-processed devices.