Grantham Scholar Dr Oleksandra Korychenska is now a scientist in the Corporate Venturing and Innovation team at Cambridge Display Technology. At the Grantham Centre she researched sustainable materials for use as organic electronics.
Today it is hard to imagine a society without electronic devices. Silicon technologies have solved the problem of supply for the increased demands of civilisation. But the negative environmental impacts caused by the way electronics are manufactured, used and disposed of encourages scientists to search for alternatives. The use of organic materials to build electronic devices may offer a more eco-friendly and cheap approach to meeting the growing needs of the world.
This project aims to find new energy sustainable materials for use in the area of organic electronics. The research focuses on synthesising and evaluating the physical properties of organic compounds based on biodegradable molecules called oligofurans, which can be obtained from waste biological feed-stock. These materials will be applied in optoelectronic devices, which convert electric current into light, or vice versa. Oligofurans are good semiconductors, and are stable, which means more efficient devices with longer lifetimes. These characteristics could make furan-based materials better for large-scale applications than the organic electronics currently used more widely.
Silicon solar cells used in many photovoltaic devices seem to be better than organic solar cells based on polymer technology. Oleksandra Korychenska led a Journal Club on how polymer technology could make organic solar cells more sustainable. Read: Understanding organic solar cells by Oleksandra Korychenska.
Are photovoltaics systems (such as silicone-based solar panels) or photosynthesis best for capturing solar energy? After leading a Journal Club on this question, Oleksandra explains the issues around these 2 systems. Read: Photovoltaics or photosynthesis? By Oleksandra Korychenska.
Watch: Clean power and climate activism talks available online. Oleksandra – along with other Grantham Scholars – organised a seminar series about clean power. Find out more and watch videos of the event here.
You can find Oleksandra Korychenska on LinkedIn.
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