About DSOS

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have the ability to connect the soft and ionic world of biology with the hard and electronic world of solid-state semiconductor physics, which might revolutionize electronic healthcare (e.g. electrophysiology and brain-computer interfaces).

We perform joint computational-experimental studies on (chiral) donor-acceptor chromophores and polymers displaying thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF), triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA), room temperature phosphorescence (RTP), etc., for (circularly polarized) OLEDs and alternative applications.

Over the past 15 years, we have done a lot of work on organic/polymer solar cells. These organic thin-film photovoltaics have shown strong potential as an innovative source of renewable energy, adding appealing features to classical (silicon) solar cell technology.

We have expanded our scope of activities to organic semiconducting materials for advanced healthcare, notably image-guided photodynamic therapy, for which we strongly collaborate with the NSI (Nanobiophysics and Soft matter Interfaces) group at imo-imomec.

Sustainable hydrogen generation can be achieved by photocatalytic water-splitting. Organic/polymer photocatalysts are very attractive for this purpose, as they can be synthetically tuned to absorb a maximum amount of solar light while simultaneously retaining suitable energy levels to drive H₂ evolution.

We target novel NIR-absorbing materials for regular bulk heterojunction NIR-OPDs as well as organic cavity enhanced photodetectors, with the aim to elucidate the intrinsic limitations of NIR photodetection based on organic semiconductors (in the pursuit of a marketable technology).

We have a particular interest in the design, synthesis, and photophysics of porphyrinoid (push-pull porphyrins, corroles, …) and BODIPY materials, specifically in relation to organic electronics and advanced healthcare applications (e.g. photodynamic therapy).