You Group News

- - - March 2013 - - -

• Wei gave an invited talk in the FIP 2013 Annual Symposium at Duke. 

- - - February 2013 - - -

• We bid a fond farewell to our Caudill lab space and completed moving our Materials and Device Lab into Kenan B527. Check out some photos of the new space here!

• Wei gave a seminar in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at University of Florida.

• Rycel's mini-review on polymer solar cells was selected as one of the top 9 articles out of 1300+ for "Best of Macromolecular Journals 2012" by Wiley. Congratulations, Rycel!

• Our FTAZ polymer seems insensitive to both morphology and thickness, which typically are bis issues for other polymer based solar cells. Our studies are described in our recent collaborative paper with Ade group in Advanced Functional Materials.

- - - January 2013 - - -

• After almost two years, we finally understood more about the “curious impact” of the F atoms in our solar cell devices.  Read Andrew’s most recent publication in JACS. 

- - - November 2012 - - -

• Welcome to our newest members, Allison Kelly and Qianqian Zhang! Both are first year graduate students.

• The You Group had a busy week at the 2012 SERMACS: Wei served as a session Chair for “Solar Fuels: Photonic Assemblies, Materials and Catalysts”; Liqiang gave a presentation at SERMACS, "Impact of Side Chains and Fluorine Substituents of Conjugated Polymers on thePerformance of Photovoltaic Blends", and Adam presented a poster.

• Wei visited Wuhan University of Technology for collaboration and gave a lecture in the State Key Lab of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing.

• Wei attended the Dreyfus Foundation Symposium and presented a poster.

- - - October 2012 - - -

• Wei participated in the Center for Faculty Excellence interview project, and discussed his thoughts on effective teaching.

• Read Liqiang's new paper on "Disentangling the impact of side chains and fluorine substituents of conjugated donor polymers on the performance of photovoltaic blends".

- - - September 2012 - - -

• Wei served as co-chair for the NSF/ONR Workshop on Key Scientific and Tehcnological Issues for Deveopment of Next-Generation Organic Solar Cells, held in Arlington, VA.

• Jason wins the Eastman Chemical Fellowship in Polymer Chemistry! Congratulations, Jason!

• In his latest paper, Liqiang shows >5% solar cell efficiency using a surface-bound poly(3-methylthiophene) film as a hole transport layer in bulk heterojunction solar cells.

• Check out Jason's recent paper, where he shows how incorporating a cross-linkable polymer into a modified siloxane composite for use in curing bone deficiency significantly improves the strength of the composite.

- - - August 2012 - - -

• Wei taught a short course in Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, together with Prof. Tzung-Fang Guo of National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan), and Prof. Iov A. Hummelgen of Federal University of Parana (Brazil).

• Robert wins the Richard G. Hiskey Graduate Fellowship from the UNC chemistry department! Congrats, Robert!
  

- - - July 2012 - - -

• Research, however significant it is, is only part of our lives! We just had fun in our group BBQ event in Hank Anderson Community Park in Carrboro. Special thanks to Travis (and his smoker!).

• After two years' hard work (experiments, writing, revision, etc.), with the help of Robert, Jeremy's third paper appeared in JACS. We wish you the best, Jeremy!

• We were all tired after almost four hours with successful back-to-back defenses by Andrew and Liqiang, but very happy for them! Congrats, Dr. Stuart and Dr. Yang!

• Wei was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, and assumed the responsibility of Vice Chair for Research in the Chemistry Department. In Wei's words: "Very memorable six years... We worked hard, but we also had fun!" Congrats, Wei!

- - - June 2012 - - -

• Wei visited Zhejiang University and gave a talk in the Department of Polymer Sciences.

• Wei gave lectures at three Korean institutions (GIST, POSTECH, and Pusan National).

• Wei gave an invited talk at SISF 2012.

• Mr. Seung Hun EOM, a visiting student from South Korea, joined our group. Welcome!

- - - May 2012 - - -

• Rycel and Sam Price try to explain "how to enhance the efficiency of polymer solar cells" in their Feature Article. Also highlighted by Materials Views.

- - - April 2012 - - -

• Wei presented a departmental seminar at the University of New Mexico.

• Check out the You group's recent outreach activities! Dr. Liang Yan, Travis, and Sam participated in the most recent NC Science Fair; Robert participated in NanoDays at NC State and volunteered as a judge at the NC Science Olympiad state competition; and Robert, Travis, and Sam all volunteered at the opening of the Nature Research Center at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.

• One is great, two is even better! Two of our papers were among the "Hottest Research of 2011" by Thomas Reuters.

• Wei co-organized "Symposium Z: Conjugated Organic Materials- Synthesis, Structure, Device, and Applications" at the 2012 MRS Spring Meeting.

• Liqiang gave an oral presentation at the 2012 MRS Spring Meeting.

• Wei and Liqiang made a short video clip to explain their recent JACS paper on a new design for parallel bulk heterojunction solar cells.

• Travis and Sam A. won the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Congratulations, guys!

- - - March 2012 - - -

• Wei gave an invited talk at the Spring 2012 ACS Meeting in San Diego.

• Wei presented a departmental seminar at UNC Charlotte.

• Our collaboration with Prof. Jiangeng Xue's group at the University of Florida resulted in an interesting publication in Energy & Environmental Science.

 

For previous news, visit the News Archive