Boris Louis

Fluorescence microscopy, a versatile tool to unravel polymer properties
Started on January, 2017
Prof. Johan Hofkens
email Boris Louis
Polymers are large molecules formed by linkage of repetitive structural units leading to a molecular chain and, more recently, to sheet-like structures. Polymers properties are determined not only by their structural units but also by their conformation and environment, thus, offering great possibilities to tune their properties. Polymer materials are flexible and light while they can be stronger than steel, they can conduct electricity and emit light. Consequently, they take an important part in our modern world. Moreover, even for the same material, individual molecules differ from one another due to the different conformations they can adopt. Therefore, to better understand the world of polymers, we propose to study individual molecules rather than bulk samples in which such individual level information is averaged out. We will use fluorescence microscopy and spectroscopy to study some of the most remarkable polymers available today: conjugated polymers used in highly efficient solar cell, dendronized polymers (DP) and two- dimensional sheet-like polymers (2DP). Connecting the electronic properties of conjugated chains to their conformation is crucial for fundamental physical understanding, paving the way for improvement in opto-electronic devices. The DPs will allow us to study polymer reptation in 3D and compare it to the reptation theory. Finally, the 2DPs are interesting as a new, unexplored materials where virtually nothing is known about their potential applications
Publications
Boris Louis, Rafael Camacho, Roger Bresolí-Obach, Sergey Abakumov, Johannes Vandaele, Tetsuhiro Kudo, Hiroshi Masuhara, Ivan Scheblykin, Johan Hofkens, Susana Rocha
Published in Optics Express, September 2020 (see publication in Journal or Research Gate )
Group paper
Johannes Vandaele, Boris Louis, Kaizheng Liu, Rafael Camacho, Paul H. J. Kouwer, Susana Rocha
Published in Soft Matter, March 2020 (see publication in Journal or Research Gate )
Group paper
Aboma Merdasa, Alexander Kiligaridis, Carolin Rehermann, Mojtaba Abdi-Jalebi, Jonas Stöber, Boris Louis, Marina Gerhard, Samuel D. Stranks, Eva L. Unger, Ivan G. Scheblykin
Published in ACS Energy Letters, May 2019 (see publication in Journal )
Marina Gerhard, Boris Louis, Rafael Camacho, Aboma Merdasa, Jun Li, Alexander Kiligaridis, Alexander Dobrovolsky, Johan Hofkens, Ivan G. Scheblykin
Published in Nature Communications, April 2019 (see publication in Journal )
Boris Louis, Stéphane Caubergh, Per-Olof Larsson, Yuxi Tianae, Ivan G. Scheblykin
Published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, January 2018 (see publication in Journal )