Lubricants & Organic Semiconductors
Faculty: Justin Youngblood (Solar Energy) and Thomas Scharf (Lubricants)
The oligomers harnessed from the biobased materials by the new faculty will be used by the laboratories of Dr.'s Youngblood and Scharf. Youngblood's expertise is in Optoelectronic Materials for Solar Energy and Fuels. The Youngblood group discovers new organic semiconductors and organic materials that may hold promise for solar cells and other electronic devices, as well as photocatalytic water-splitting for hydrogen fuel. Current precursors for this research are of petrochemical and the Youngblood group will work together with a Green Chemistry group on the transformation of biologically-derived chemical feedstocks into industrially-applicable chemicals/materials for producing organic semiconductor compounds and materials. These new organic electronic compounds and materials will be tested for their fundamental optoelectronic properties and performance in prototype devices. Scharf will work with the green chemist on improving the thermooxidative stability of vegetable oil esters such as triglycerides. As long as petroleum-based esters are stronger in these areas, the drive to natural products remains stalled. However, sustainability and performance are compatible with proper selection and testing of additives. Dr. Scharf's work has traditionally resided in petroleum-based stocks, lubricants, and lubricant additives to achieve effective boundary film lubrication. Dr. Scharf is well positioned to apply his extensive experience to developing alternatives from renewable resources.