Events

Exploring Electron Transfer in Organic Semiconductors

January 28, 2009 at 3pm/36-428

Troy Van Voorhis
Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

abstract:
Electron transfer reactions are the centerpiece of artificial photosynthetic complexes, organic LEDs and essentially all of redox chemistry. In particular, electron transfer rates govern the efficiency of exciton formation and dissociation in organic semiconductors. This talk will highlight ongoing work being carried out in our group aimed at accurately simulating the reaction dynamics in these systems. Specifically, we will focus on the electronic structure problem inherent in describing electron transfer: How do we make connections between a phenomenological picture like Marcus theory and more rigorous electronic structure techniques? How can we model the disorder inherent in organic solids?

bio:
Professor Van Voorhis graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 2001 with a PhD in Chemistry. After two years as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, he joined MIT as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry. In 2008, he became Associate Professor. He held the Paul M. Cook Career Development chair in Chemistry from 2002-2005, is a Sloan Fellow, a David and Lucille Packard Fellow, and the recipient of a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. His research focuses on the use of theory and modeling to understand the dynamics of electron motion in complex environments. Primary interests include the fundamental theory of electronic excited states, the description of electron transfer and the simulation of reactions that involve more than one electronic state. These processes are at the heart of several technological applications, including organic LEDs, artificial photosynthesis and molecular electronics.