Reports: SE

48762-SE US-Japan POLYMAT 2008 Summit: Innovations and Opportunities in Polymer Materials for Energy and Optoelectronic Devices, August 10-13, 2008, Ventura Beach, CA

Rigoberto Advincula, University of Houston

The conference highlighted the advances in polymer science and engineering related to energy generation, utilization, and electro-optics. Specifically, this highlighted developments and advances in the US and Japan which provided new opportunities for polymer scientists and engineers from both countries to interact and present their research in a productive and stimulating atmosphere. This conference is a partnership with the Society for Polymer Science of Japan and the Polymer Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society. The use of new polymers and materials with unique function for organic light emitting diodes, white lighting, fuel cell membranes, photovoltaic devices, and other electro-optical phenomena as well as energy-harvesting systems were highlighted. The topic was timely especially with the growing demand for energy resources together with the challenge of high efficiency and low power devices. The location of the meeting was in Ventura, California, Four Points, Sheraton which has also been a favorite location for holding the Gordon Research Conferences. Several of the speakers included: A. Heeger (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara), S. Jenekhe (Univ. of Washington), T. Kawai (Narra. Inst. Tech.), T. Miyasaka (Peccell Co.), D. Smith (Clemson Univ.), F. Wudl (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara), K. Akagi (Kyoto Univ.), Z. Bao (Stanford University), G. Bazan (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara), K. Yamamoto (Keio Univ.), A. Jen (Univ. of Washington), H. Usui (Tokyo Univ. of Agr. and Tech.) , A. Yee (Univ. of California, Irvine), and F. Kaneko (Niigata University). The topics covered in the meeting included the following: Energy-harvesting Related Polymer Materials, Polymers for Batteries and Capacitors, Polymers for Printed Electronics, Photovoltaic Polymers, Polymers for Sensors, Photonic and Optoelectronic Polymers, Hierarchical Conjugated Polymers, Hybrid and Nanocomposite Polymeric Materials, Nano-Structured Polymers for Electro-optics, Energy-Related Polymer Materials: Batteries, Fuel Cells, and Solar Cells. The organizers were able to include industrial, academic, and government scientists, professionals, entrepreneurs, and technology transfer specialists to present their short and long term targeted innovations and opportunities in polymer science as it relates to energy conversion and electro-optical materials. Breakthrough technologies from international experts were presented featuring polymer science solutions intended for existing and future commercial products related to electro-optical and energy harvesting and storage devices. The focus is between the US and Japan scientists and chemists with a joint common theme of electro-optical and energy-related polymer materials. The event was accessible to all types of participants with similar interests with a large number of student participants (close to 40 %). The plenary speaker was Prof. Alan Heeger, 2000 Nobel Prize winner and the student participants were given the opportunity to present posters at the conference. Since this was a joint collaboration between two of the biggest groups or polymer societies namely the ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry and the Society for Polymer Science of Japan, the two organizers Prof. Advincula and Prof. Nishide have taken the lead to foster a closer relationship between the two countries and their scientific counterparts in terms of the common research themes. A year of planning was done in preparation for the meeting. There is current planning for a second conference of this type in another year.