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Clearing a Path to Flexible Electronics

On February 22, 2016 John Anthony, a Chemistry professor at the University of Kentucky had an article featured in the Nature Communications publication.  The article titled, "Reducing dynamic disorder in small-molecule organic semiconductors by suppressing large-amplitude thermal motions," deals with understanding performance vibrations in organic semiconductors.

All solids are composed of atoms or molecules, and at temperatures above absolute 0 (-460 °F) these molecules are vibrating rapidly.  Such vibrations decrease the performance of semiconductors (critical components in computer chips and modern video displays), because the movement of the molecules can deflect charges moving through the solid.      

Anthony's work with researchers in England and Belgium, investigates the specific nature of these vibrations and their impact on charge being transported through solid.  The team discovered that certain types of vibration were particularly damaging to performance, and altering the molecules to minimize such vibrations led to substantially improved transistors. These results provide the flexible electronics community with improved guidelines for the design of next-generation consumer electronics.

The entire article can be viewed here.