News Archive
August 2024
Our group recently participated in the International Seminar “Medio ambiente, Sustentabilidad, Energía, e Innovación desde una Perspectiva Interdisciplinaria", organized by several Schools at UC. Catalina and Florencia were awarded best posters during the poster session. Congratulations to both!
August 2024
As part of the PhD program, Felipe Barría conducted a 3-month doctoral visit to the laboratory of Professor Yongli Gao in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester. During the visit, Felipe was extensively trained in using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) and inverse photoemission spectroscopy (IPES) to characterize the energy levels of his perovskite materials. We appreciate the support of Professor Gao, Joe Madathil, and Mike Culver during Felipe's visit.
In addition, Felipe attended the 28th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference by the ACS. He presented the work results with Florencia Rocco and Catalina Farías on tin-based lead-free perovskite PVs.
August 2024
A new article from our group has been published in the journal Energy Technology, titled "Effect of Alkyl Side Chains in BDT and 2D-BDT Small-Molecules as Donor Materials for Vacuum-Processed Organic Photovoltaic Devices". This work contains the main results of the project FONDECYT 11181205, including the theses of Diego Vilches and Cristian Antoine, with the support of Paulo Preuss.
Congratulations to all the Angel Group for their excellent work!
More information:
July 2024
On last May, Diego Vilches defended his thesis titled "Síntesis y evaluación del efecto de las cadenas laterales alquílicas en moléculas dadoras pequeñas derivadas de BDT en dispositivos fotovoltaicos orgánicos fabricados por evaporación térmica al vacío". We appreciate the evaluation by committee members Dr. María Belén Camarada and Dr. Claudio Terraza.
Diego is currently preparing to apply to our doctoral program. Best wishes, Diego!
March 2024
Last November, our research group attended the Congreso Nacional de Nanotecnología 2023, held in Pucón, Chile. Felipe Barría, Alexis González, Diego Vilches, and Cristian Antoine presented posters. At the same time, Paulo Preuss gave a talk about his work with Rhenium nanoparticles as catalysts for the decomposition of ammonium perchlorate. Congratulations to all for their excellent presentations.
More information:
November 2023
On Novermber 9th Cristian Antoine defended his thesis titled "Estudio del efecto de cadenas alquílicas laterales en el ordenamiento y el transporte de carga de dispositivos fotovoltaicos orgánicos basados en moléculas dadores de electrones tipo 2D-BDT"
We wish you the best, Cristian, personally and professionally, during your future graduate studies!
November 2023
Two new articles have been recently published due to our collaborations with the research groups of Dr. María Belén Camarada and Dr. Ignacio Jessop.
The article titled "Rhenium and Rhenium–Copper Nanoparticles: Evaluation of the Catalytic Activity for the Decomposition of Ammonium Perchlorate" was published in Catalysis Letters, while the article "Computational prediction of the properties of bis(ethynylthienyl)dialcoxynaphthalene-based conjugated polymers for organic solar cell applications" was published in the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry.
Congratulations to all the co-authors.
More information:
June 2023
After a long wait due to COVID, we finally received the visit at UC of our international collaborator Professor Ching W. Tang. During his visit, Professor Tang participated in the 2023 Workshop on Organic Electronics with a Keynote Talk on his professional and personal life on the discovery and development of OLEDs. National collaborators Professors Loïk Gence and Ignacio Jessop also gave exciting talks on their research. Postdoctoral researchers, graduates, and undergraduate students participated in the poster sessions of the Workshop organized by DIPOG and CIEN-UC.
Also, Professor Tang held several meetings with colleagues from different universities and schools to discuss their research results and ideas. As a group, current graduate and undergraduate students also presented their results. Exciting ideas were discussed for possible research collaborations.
We sincerely thank Professor Tang for his first and hopefully not last visit to Chile and for all the academic and social activities we had during his visit.
March 2023
Our group recently published an article in collaboration with Dr. Camarada, Dr. Saldías, and Dr. Castro-Castillo, in Materials Letters titled: "Evaluation of electro-synthesized oligothiophenes as donor materials in vacuum-processed organic photovoltaic devices". Congratulations to all!
More information:
December 2022
As every second semester, the elective course "Solar Cells" (QIM517) was offered to undergraduate students in Chemistry. As part of the course activities, students evaluated the efficiency of different commercially available solar cells outdoors. Also, students practiced their communicative skills by presenting in English a critical analysis of scientific articles on Photovoltaics. Congratulations to all!
November 2022
Recent results of our research group were shared at the XVIII Encuentro de Química Inorgánica 2022 held in Olmué, with a plenary national presentation titled: "Vacuum-Processed Halide Perovskite Photovoltaic Devices: Challenges and Prospects."
October 2022
A new article has been published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences titled: "New Benzotriazole and Benzodithiophene-Based Conjugated Terpolymer Bearing a Fluorescein Derivative as Side-Group: Internal Förster Resonance Energy Transfer to Improve Organic Solar Cells". Congratulations to all the co-authors!
More information:
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232112901
May 2022
The group has published two recent articles. As part of our long-lasting collaboration with Dr. Gloria Neculqueo from CChEN, we published the article titled: "8-hydroxyquinolinato lithium nano-interlayer in tandem OPV devices" in the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics.
Also, as part of Catalina's thesis, we have published in the journal Materials Letters the article titled: "Simple dual-QCM method to control CH3NH3I deposition for reproducible vacuum-processed halide perovskite photovoltaic devices", coauthored by Felipe B. Congratulations to all for their effort and work!
More information:
March 2022
As part of our collaborations with Dr. Camarada and Dr. Jessop, a review article has been published in the journal Critical Reviews in Solid State and Materials Sciences titled: "Computational chemistry advances on benzodithiophene-based organic photovoltaic materials". This is the result of a two-year work done during the pandemic. Congratulations to our colleagues!
More information:
December 2021
Héctor defended his thesis "Investigación bibliográfica comparativa de las propiedades optoelectrónicas de derivados de benzoditiofeno y sus análogos benzodifurano y benzodiselenofeno como dadores de electrones en dispositivos fotovoltaicos orgánicos". Special congratulations to Héctor for his work and dedication during the pandemic, as he was able to transfer from an experimental to a bibliographic thesis project.
Below is a picture from the Group right before the pandemic started. We hope to have the proper celebration soon.
September 2020
Javier's thesis work was recently published in Optical Materials. The article is titled: "Benzodithiophene-based small molecules for vacuum-processed organic photovoltaic devices".
Also, two more articles were published earlier this year. In collaboration with Dr. Sebastián Bonardd, a paper was published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, titled: "Doped Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Coatings onto Chitosan: A Novel Approach for Developing a Bio-Based Flexible Electronic". And another article titled: "Synthesis and Characterization of a 2,3-Dialkoxynaphthalene-Based Conjugated Copolymer via Direct Arylation Polymerization (DAP) for Organic Electronics" was published in Polymers, as result of a collaboration with Dr. Ignacio Jessop.
More information:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optmat.2020.110354
January 2020
The Angel Group presented several works at the XXXIII Jornadas Chilenas de Química, held in Puerto Varas. Javier and Gloria gave oral presentations, while Catalina and Francisco participated at the poster session. In addition, results as part of our collaboration with Dr. Ignacio Jessop were also presented during his talk.
December 2019
Our group has participated in several scientific activities. Prof. Angel gave a keynote talk in October at the International Conference on Materials Science at Valdivia. This month, he also gave a keynote talk at the 2do Simposio de Nanotecnología, organized by the Centro de Nanotecnología Aplicada of the Universidad Mayor, and Javier presented a poster with his thesis work.
September 2019
Javier Yagui has recently defended his thesis, titled: "Síntesis y evaluación de moléculas pequeñas como materiales dadores de electrones en dispositivos fotovoltaicos orgánicos fabricados por evaporación térmica".
Congratulations!
June 2019
As each year, we will be sponsoring postdoctoral researchers interested in applying to FONDECYT Postdoctorado 2020. This year, the application deadline will be by the end of July. The postdoctoral researchers must prepare their own 2-to-3 years research proposals. The proposals must be related to the following topics:
Organic photovoltaics: synthesis, device fabrication by thermal deposition, and device characterization.
Perovskite photovoltaics: synthesis, device fabrication by thermal deposition, and device characterization.
For questions and inquiries, please contact Prof. Angel at faangel@uc.cl
For more information about FONDECYT Postdoctorado 2020, visit the link: https://www.conicyt.cl/fondecyt/2018/11/15/fondecyt-postdoctorado-2020/
December 2018
Javier Yagui received a scholarship to present some of the results of his thesis work at the V Congreso Nacional de Nanotecnología, held in Pucón. The poster was titled: "Síntesis y evaluación de moléculas pequeñas como materiales dadores de electrones en dispositivos fotovoltaicos orgánicos fabricados por evaporación térmica".
November 2018
The group has been awarded with a FONDECYT Iniciación research grant. The project FONDECYT N°11181205 titled "Synthesis and evaluation of the side chain effect on the performance of oligomer-like small molecules based on benzodithiophene derivatives as donor materials in organic photovoltaic devices fabricated through thermal evaporation" aims to establish novel approaches to improve the efficiency of OPV devices.
More information:
May 2018
A new article in the journal Organic Electronics has been accepted. It is titled: "Silver-induced activation of 8-hydroxyquinolinato lithium as electron injection material in single-stack and tandem OLED devices".
More information:
December 2017
The Facultad de Química of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile has been awarded with the 2017 PAI (Programa Atracción e Inserción de Capital Humano Avanzado) in Academia from CONICYT. The project PAI79170049 "Fortalecimiento de la investigación en energía solar fotovoltaica aplicada" aims to develop a research line on solar energy based on organic and hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite materials.
More information: