Franco Cacialli

Recent Research

Over the years, Franco’s research ranged from the set-up of an original chemical vapour deposition method of heavily doped, conducting polymers, to the study of polymer LEDs and the control of their luminescent properties. Recent interests include supramolecular architectures for the control of the solid-state properties of organic semiconductors, in particular threaded molecular wires (TMWs). This work has been developed in collaboration with Professor Anderson at Oxford (Chemistry) and Dr Samorì (ISIS – Strasbourg) with whom Franco has co-organised other 2 related conferences (EMRS 2004 symposium, RS discussion meeting in 2006). Another strand of activity is on nano-optics, and is aimed at high-resolution fluorescence/photoconductivity imaging and fabrication of organic semiconductors nanostructures by means of scanning near-field optical microscopes.

Franco Cacialli has been teaching a course on Laser and Modern Optics in the Department of Physics (3443) at UCL (both evening and day courses), and has now started his duties as the new Admission Tutor for the MSc course in Physics and Astronomy. He will be teaching a course on Polymer Electronics within both the MSc in Physics and the MSc in Nanotechnology starting in the academic year 2007-2008. Franco is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, a member of the EPSRC peer-review college, and a member of the advisory board of Materials Today.

Recent Publications

• G. Latini, M. Wykes, R. Schlapak et al., "Self-assembled monolayers of protonated poly(amidoamine) dendrimers on indium tin oxide," Applied Physics Letters 92 (1) (2008).
• A. Petrozza, S. Brovelli, J. J. Michels et al., "Control of rapid formation of interchain excited states in sugar-threaded supramolecular wires," Advanced Materials 20 (17), 3218-+ (2008).
• G. Winroth, G. Latini, D. Credgington et al., "Polyfluorene-based light-emitting diodes with an azide photocross-linked poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene):(polystyrene sulfonic acid) hole-injecting layer," Applied Physics Letters 92 (10) (2008).
• R. A. Hatton, N. P. Blanchard, L. W. Tan et al., "Oxidised carbon nanotubes as solution processable, high work function hole-extraction layers for organic solar cells," Organic Electronics 10 (3), 388-395 (2009).
• F. E. Oddy, S. Brovelli, M. T. Stone et al., "Influence of cyclodextrin size on fluorescence quenching in conjugated polyrotaxanes by methyl viologen in aqueous solution," Journal of Materials Chemistry 19 (18), 2846-2852 (2009).

Biography