Over the course of history, materials have always played a central role in facilitating and improving people’s life. However, not many materials can rival the impact polymers have had on every aspect of modern life. The range of applications for polymeric materials range from simple packaging foils to enhance food safety, to high performing fibres for aerospacial applications, to biodegradable and -compatible implants facilitating medical surgery. With the discovery of conducting polymers in the late 1980’s, the range of applications for polymers expanded even further!

Since their discovery, conjugated polymers have been successfully introduced as active material in various electronic applications, such as organic photovoltaics (OPV), field effect transistors (OFET) and light emitting diodes (OLED). In the Schroeder Group, we have a strong background in conjugated polymer synthesis and are interested in designing new conducting polymers for tomorrow’s technologies. Current research topics in the group focus on the solution processability and self-assembly of conjugated polymers in order to gain control over molecular packing at the nano-, respectively microscale. Besides our interests in solid state structure of conjugated polymers, we are exploring different possibilities to introduce organic conducting polymers as efficient thermoelectric materials. Our focus lies in the design of new conducting polymers, as well as the development of molecular dopants, compatible with the solid state packing specificities of conjugated polymers.