Margaret Kocherga

Chemistry DEVELOPMENT OF HEXACOORDINATE SILICON COMPLEXES FOR OLEDS AND SPINTRONICS TECHNOLOGY

Research Description: Development of Hexacoordinate Silicon Complexes For OLEDs and Spintronics Technology

Research Group: Schmedake Research Group

Previous Degree: B.S. Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Dissertation Defense

“HEXACOORDINATE SILICON COMPLEXES FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICES” Doctoral Advisor: Thomas A. Schmedake Abstract: Organic electronic devices such as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic photovoltaics (OPV) have been successfully employed in the world of electronics over the past decade. They use organic and polymeric based materials instead of conventional inorganic materials that are often toxic, which opens the door to more flexible and safer electronics. Thus, there is an increased interest in developing materials that will enable more efficient, affordable and safer devices. A series of Si(pincer)2 complexes will be discussed in this work, to access the ability of non-rare-earth complexes to replace the expensive and hard to outsource materials. The electronic and optical properties of which were studied in the solution state, and films of the complexes were grown via thermal evaporation/deposition. Many of the complexes exhibit electron and hole mobilities competitive in comparison to commercially available materials. Si(pincer)2 and its analogs have been incorporated into OLEDs and OPVs demonstrating the ability for the Si(pincer)2 complexes to be suitable alternatives for applications in electronic devices.

Date; July 22, 2020