Titre : ''Supramolecular Material Design Concepts at the Interface of Visible Light and Energy''
Endroit : Pavillon Roger-Gaudry, salle G-715 à 11 h 00.
Cette conférence sera prononcée par Jaana Vapaavuori, Ph.D. de l'Université de Montréal, postdoctorante sous la supervision de la Professeure Géraldine Bazuin et du Professeur Christian Pellerin.
Résumé : A key to achieving high-tech applications is to first understand the delicate balance of supramolecular interactions in soft condensed materials, and then develop methods for controlling them. Due to its diverse characteristics, light is arguably one of the most attractive tools for energy production and manipulation of materials: it provides high spatial and temporal resolution, can be optimized (wavelength, intensity, polarization) for different targets, transfers significant amounts of energy without wires, and can allow reversible on/off switching. In addition to converting the energy of light into electricity via photovoltaic devices, light energy can be converted directly into kinetic energy by taking advantage of the azobenzene photoisomerization reaction in photomechanical materials.
In this presentation, three different topics of photoresponsive soft materials will be discussed. First, the design principles of supramolecular azobenzene-containing polymer materials and their photomechanical functions are decoded. In addition to other complementary material characterization techniques, two different IR methods are used for elucidating what takes place, on the molecular level, when nanometer-scale azobenzene motion is converted into micron-scale material motion. Second, we will explore how supramolecular assembly of light-active azobenzene can be used for photo-switching the nanostructures of a block copolymer in the 10-100 nm range. Third, we present a new preparation method for dye-sensitized solar cells, based on nanostructured cellulose aerogels, which eliminates one common pathway of electrolyte leakage and allows easy scale-up of the devices.
