Professor Dmitri Talapin of the University of Chicago conducts research to develop new chemical reactions to prepare materials that enable simple and precise fabrication of light emitting devices (LEDs) and displays. The goal is to remove the bottleneck between the development of the individual components and the integration in real-world applications. Displays and other optical/electronic devices represent multibillion-dollar markets, and the ability to provide a new universal manufacturing platform for these industries may have significant societal impact. This project helps train students at the interdisciplinary interface of nanoscience, inorganic chemistry, and materials engineering. Furthermore, Professor Talapin partners with the Leadership Alliance to recruit minority and underrepresented undergraduate students. This project also supports interactive summer workshops on nanomanufacturing-related topics for local underrepresented African-American and Hispanic K-12 populations on Chicago's South Side.
Professor Talapin is supported by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry Program of the NSF Division of Chemistry to expand upon a new method for direct optical lithography of functional inorganic nanomaterials (DOLFIN). This method uses inorganic nanocrystals with novel photochemically-active surface ligands. The DOLFIN process combines multiple benefits of photolithography and is tailored toward efficient patterning of inorganic nanomaterials without diluting or contaminating them with organic photoresists and other byproducts. DOLFIN is meant to remedy the lack of efficient methods for high-quality additive patterning of solution-processed electronic materials. The range of materials that can be patterned using this technique includes metals, semiconductors, oxides, and magnetic or rare earth compositions. The project goals include the development of new DOLFIN ligands for nanocrystals to expand the range of photon energies and enable multicolor lithography. The team investigates optically triggered reaction pathways and excited-state dynamics in nanocrystal-ligand combinations to reveal the processes responsible for DOLFIN's resolution and sensitivity. The ability to directly pattern functional all-inorganic layers with nanoscale resolution provides an alternate route for thin-film device manufacturing.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
