OMIROS

Advanced organic materials based on the formation of higher dimensionalities all conjugated polymer frameworks will be developed and used as candidates in applications related to energy conversion and near infrared visualization. Such chemically stable fully π-conjugated covalent organic frameworks (cp-COF) with three dimensionally ordered chain alignment may provide a solution for the long-standing daunting challenges in semiconducting polymer technology. By virtue of their three-dimensional orderings at the atomic scale, two dimensional (2D) covalent organic frameworks have shown a great potential to perform core functions in organic electronics such as light emission, charge transfer and separation and semiconduction.

The rapid advancement in synthetic capability has given researchers a broad toolkit for constructing new materials, and it is anticipate that the next 5 to 10 years of research will focus more closely on the applications of cp-COFs. Within OMIROS project, novel cp-COFs with tunable topologies, porosities and easy of processing will be produced and used as: (i) alternative electron donor materials in bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaics and (ii) near infrared absorbers and emitters.

The synthetic methodology will be based on the aromatic cross coupling polymerization method of new organic building blocks with multiple functional groups for the formation of the organic framework and their supramolecular self-assembly, due to the strong π-π stacking interactions, leading to layered structures.