Last update: 31/01/2025

GHOST

MAIN IDEA OF THE GHOST PROJECT

The Green Deal has made it necessary to develop low power electronics, using sustainable materials and green processing. The successful implementation of AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diodes) displays in mobile phones, organic-based electronics illustrates that the Green Deal is possible. However, current organic electronics technologies have yet to be efficiency and not all are produced via low embedded energy processing methods. By using bio inspired organic materials deposited by green process technologies achieving these goals could be realised. During project GHOST, we will focus on inter molecular interactions to help address these issues. Irrespective of application; AMOLED, Organic PhotoVoltaics (OPV), Organic Field-Effect Transistors (OFET) or Organic Thermoelectric Generators (OTG), the active materials are used in a solid matrix that stabilises them but also changes their properties relative to those in solution. There are many examples where guest-host interactions, e.g. donor-acceptor materials in OPV devices, completely change the properties of the system. Using light-emitting guests blended in a host or donor-acceptor exciplex systems leads to increasing OLED emission efficiency. But how to control these interactions is not well understood and is still largely emipirical. Interactions can change both the molecule conformation and electro-optic properties of the materials, but theoretical approaches to understanding these mechanisms are still in their infancy. Moreover, the varried effects of such intermolecular interactions in working devices is very poorly understood. Currently our limited understanding of these phenomena limit our ability to develop bio inspired materials and active components. All life on earth is organic and can perform complex of functions. Taking inspiration from living organisims, we aim to develop a new low energy organic electronics technologies. Our work aims to prove that by understanding intermolecular interactions and their effect on device function, that new bio-inspired materials can provide the pathway to green organic electronic devices.

The overarching goal of the project is to forge a new international EU-World Network that addresses intermolecular interactions, processes and applications of functional materials in organic electronic devices. Towards this end, the network brings together researchers that have complementary expertise, infrastructure, and who are leaders in their fields to tackle the scientific objectives of the project. The GHOST network is composed of the Lodz University of Technology (TUL, Poland), University of Durham (UDUR, UK), University of Glasgow (UOG, UK), Denmark Technological University (DTU, Denmark), Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP, Germany), Institute of Organic Chemistry (ICHO, Poland), Institute of Physical Chemistry (ICHF, Poland), AGH University of Krakow (AGH, Poland), University of Bordeaux – French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS, France), Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC, Brazil), University of Montreal (UDEM, Canada), University of Mauritius (UOM, Mauritius), National Taiwan University (NTU, Taiwan), Osaka University (OU, Japan), Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST, Japan), University of Auckland (UOA, New Zealand), University of Queensland (UQ, Australia) and Sungkyunkwan University (SU, Republic of Korea). To achieve both the research and training goals, this four year project will consolidate active individual scientific and innovative collaborations into a cohesive network to initiate an extensive collaborative network between all the network members for successfully the scientific and training goals of the project.