Submitted by amarrocchi t3_109whbz in IAmA

Hello! I am Assunta Marrocchi, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia (Italy). DID YOU KNOW THAT over the period 2019-2022, the data from the dominant databases used in R&D statistics indicates a growth rate of ~30% per year of the number of papers on sustainability in OE? OE is experiencing a paradigm shift to technologies and practices that assign value to the replacement of fossil resources with renewable ones, waste and energy minimization, and avoid the use of substances that pose serious risks to the environment and the human health. It comes because of the ever-stricter regulatory requirements worldwide and the community’s evolving attitude towards the environment. "Sustainable Strategies in Organic Electronics" dives into sustainability-driven OE, discussing the latest development in the field of: green materials and synthesis; low energy, low material device fabrication techniques; sustainable end-of-life options; OE technologies scale- up from lab to industrial scale. I'll be here from 12-2 pm (CET time) on Jan 12 asnswering any questions about sustainability integration into mainstream OE. AMA!

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Comments

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msaet t1_j41avnx wrote

Can you please briefly explain what Organic Electronics is in simple terms?

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amarrocchi OP t1_j433vyy wrote

Hi! Organic electronics is a technology that utilizes organic molecules or polymers to create electronic components for many application areas (photovoltaic, transistors, sensors, oleds, etc). Organics indeed may be lighter (useful for portable devices), and more flexible than conventional silicon-based inorganic materials. Also, they can undergo a wider range of chemical modifications, which, in turn, enables to fine-tune their properties (e.g., color).

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Chern_Simons t1_j441j6r wrote

Do OE devices work in similar ways to semiconductors (i.e. do they rely on pn junction etc)?

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amarrocchi OP t1_j473oqi wrote

Hi! Yes, OE devices work similarly to the conventional, and they rely on organic molecules and polymers that can be semiconductors ( so you can fabricate, for example, a kind of pn junction, or the active layer of a transistor etc), or insulators ( for dielectrics in transistor, or device substrates), and even as conductors, though these latter are a limited class.

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thebutler14 t1_j41tj77 wrote

Thank you! 'Green' can be a blanketing term, which can be frustratingly opaque when there's a lot of aspects (sustainable, non-toxic to humans/animals/plants, biodegradable, etc). Given that there's strong financial incentives to NOT investigate or obscure the external impacts of a product, how do you see standards or regulations safeguarding OE given the diversity and complexity of the field?

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amarrocchi OP t1_j43a2p6 wrote

Hi, and thank you! Well, to the best of my knowledge there are technical committees attempting to set standards for sustainability in the field of OE. These will need to comply with the current legislation on chemical substances, of course. But, you’re right, the field is extremely diversified and complex. And, also, this aspect didn’t draw much attention up to very recent times. Just like ‘ok, now let’s think about achieving the most efficient devices, it doesn’t matter how, then we’ll see’. This delay will be an issue. Fabrication plants are hard-pressed, for example, due to the regulatory requirements which ban the use of hazardous solvents. So, to make OE viable, the paradigm shift urges, also in terms of regulations and standards. Though I think the whole process will take a lot of time … substitutions of materials are not easy to identify, for example. They need to maintain performance, otherwise one will have a final product that is environmentally sustainable but not economically and socially sustainable. I also think, btw, that setting standards requiring LESS hazardous materials, and LESS energy than those for the state of the art devices would already be a good start.

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Jaxxxz t1_j40vyc9 wrote

What is your favourite dinosaur and why?

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semiloaded t1_j41mj50 wrote

Why aren’t organic shock treatment services available for those with mental disorders?

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IAmAModBot t1_j435fmi wrote

For more AMAs on this topic, subscribe to r/IAmA_Academic, and check out our other topic-specific AMA subreddits here.

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b_33 t1_j43rsj2 wrote

What are the main stumbling blocks of OE technologies? (Cost, technical limitations?) And can you give examples of the materials used in organic electronics (i.e. in more specifics?)

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amarrocchi OP t1_j477gb2 wrote

It’s the stability of organics vs conventional inorganic materials. For organic photovoltaic cells, for example, efficiencies currently overcome those for amorphous silicon-based devices. The drawback is that you cannot use them on the top of the roof of your house to get electricity, at least not for a long time, because when exposed to the combination of heating and light, organics degrade faster , and your device loss it’s efficiency. However, OE are very important in complementary applications (the e-skin, for example, or the OLED displays , or portable photovoltaics( much lighter devices are possible). Another point is that charge mobility in organic semiconductors is inherently lower than that in the inorganic counterparts, and this means that it would not be possible to reach the performance of the most performing types of inorganics. But this is not the objective. The major objective is to complement them. In fact, some characteristics are not possible to be achieved by conventional inorganics , like transparency, lightness, low energy manufacturing (OE devices can be printed like newspapers!) Examples of benchmark organic semiconductor are polythiophenes, pentacene derivatives, etc. For the dielectrics also polysaccharides, silicone rubbers, silk fibroins and so on. You need to have something which can be easily ‘polarized ‘ We recently carried out a study were we used polymers extracted from brewers spent grains (which is a byproduct of the brewing industry) to make dielectrics for transistors

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