NANOCOLLOQUIUM: Mark Ratner
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
A.V. Williams Building, Room 2460
For More Information:
Martha Heil
301 405 0876
mjheil@umd.edu

Abstract: The molecular state of matter occasionally forms crystals. But the solid state of many molecules is disordered, perhaps even to the extent of becoming a glass. More generally, large organics have trouble accommodating themselves to the periodicity that is required to be crystalline. If the solid material based on molecular identities is to act as a producer of electronic charge and/or a transporter of electronic charge, its interactions with its neighbors are critical. This issue is aggravated when there are several different molecules in the material. This has been explored extensively by physical chemists over the last five decades, in all of its manifestations. In this talk, we will discuss organic materials such as phthalocyanines with large groups on the periphery, fullerenes with alkane or alkene attachments, linear chain molecules and organometallics. All of these form non-crystalline solids, and many of them are used in applications that require transport of charge or ions through the material. We will examine ways in which we can simplify the complexity of the non-crystalline material, and finally come up with an index to describe the nature of the material and its probability of conducting charge. Applications to organic photovoltaics will be stressed.

Wednesday, February 17
11am-12 pm
AV Williams 2460

Bio: Mark A. Ratner is a materials chemist, whose work focuses on the interplay between molecular structure and molecular properties. This includes such aspects as molecular electronics, molecular optoelectronics, molecular systems design and biomolecular behavior, as well quantum and classical methodologies for understanding and predicting molecular structure and response. The major focus of his research for the last three decades has been the understanding of charge transfer and charge transport processes based on molecular structures, ranging from nonadiabatic intramolecular behavior to aspects of molecular devices, including photovoltaics, conductive polymers, molecular transport junctions and molecular switches.

His professional history involves undergraduate work at Harvard, graduate work at Northwestern, postdoctoral work at Aarhus and Munich, and faculty positions at New York University and Northwestern. He is now Dumas University Professor at NU and Co-Director of the Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN). He has very active international collaborations, particularly in Denmark, Israel and the Netherlands. He has been awarded the Feynman Prize, the Langmuir Award of the American Chemical Society, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Sciences, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and an annual canoe trip which puts all things back into perspective.

This Event is For: Public • Clark School • Graduate • Faculty • Post-Docs