(Invited) Metallated and Metal-Free Molecular Materials for Light/Electrical Energy Conversion

Metallated and metal-free molecules have become a field of intense activities in the optoelectronic research. They hold great promise as versatile functional materials for use in energy interconversions. These include systems where light is transformed into electricity and vice versa. This lecture highlights the recent progress in the advances of numerous functional metal-organic and organic molecules with tunable photofunctional and electronic traits. Focus is placed on examining their potential as efficient emitters in light-emitting applications and semiconductors in photovoltaic cells (both organic and dye-sensitized solar cells) for solar power generation. The strategies based on structural modifications of the organic groups to tune the emission and photovoltaic properties of these materials will be presented and discussed.