Thanks to advances in materials chemistry, researchers have been able to synthesize new materials that allow solution-based processing of next-generation optoelectronic materials.

Many interesting innovations from solution coated systems, ranging from conductive substrates to solar cells to transistors are currently investigated. We are not limited to organic materials, but also hybrid and inorganic systems are considered. 

Very often, the technique applied in the laboratory is a process where high quality films are manufactured by controlled solvent evaporation such as in spin-coating.

In the “Functional Thin Film Solution Processing” group, we address scientific and engineering aspects of solution processing, namely

• to overcome the gap between lab-scale sample manufacturing and industrially relevant fabrication technologies. Solvent evaporation and film formation is by far less controlled when large area deposition techniques are employed.
• to develop novel ink formulations to meet the requirements for the deposition of materials by various high throughput-coating methods.
• to exploit spontaneous self-assembly related to solvent evaporation to add functionality to wet deposited films. 

Our coating laboratory provides infrastructure, workforce and knowhow for the deposition of functional coatings and protection layers on rigid and flexible substrates used for the fabrication of optical and electronic devices.

Available equipment at the coating laboratory will enable the development of thin film coating solutions up to DIN A5 scale. The laboratory will evaluate, develop and offer the best-suited technology and analytic for a given functional coating.