Cooperativity in organic semiconductors may enhance the performance of smartwatches, solar cells, and other organic electronics. The virus responsible for E. coli infection has a secret weapon: teamwork. Always scrappy in its bid for survival, the virus alights on an unassuming host cell and g
A method to induce cooperative behavior in organic semiconductors has been discovered by the researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. This energy- and time-saving phenomenon could potentially improve the performance of organic electronics, including smartwatches and solar cells.may enhance the performance of smartwatches, solar cells, and other organic electronics.
“Our research brings semiconductors to life by unlocking the same dynamic qualities that natural organisms like viruses use to adapt and survive,” said Ying Diao, a researcher at the Beckman Institute and a coauthor of the study. By contrast, cooperative transitions occur when molecules shift their structure in synchrony, like a row of dominoes flowing seamlessly to the floor. The collaborative method is fast, energy-efficient, and easily reversible — it’s why the virus responsible for E. coli infection can tirelessly contract its protein-packed tail with little energy lost.
Diao and Davies study organic electronic devices, which rely on semiconductors made from molecules like hydrogen and carbon rather than inorganic ones like silicon, a ubiquitous ingredient in the laptops, desktops, and smart devices saturating the market today. Dominoes inspired the researchers’ approach to trigger molecular teamwork in a semiconductor crystal. They discovered that rearranging the clusters of hydrogen and carbon atoms spooling out from a molecule’s core — otherwise known as alkyl chains — causes the molecular core itself to tilt, triggering a crystal-wide chain of collapse the researchers refer to as an “avalanche.”
Using heat to rearrange the molecules’ alkyl chains also caused the crystal itself to shrink — just like the virus’s tail prior to E. coli infection. In an electronic device, this property translates to an easy, temperature-induced on-off switch.
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