Synthesis and characterization of melanin for organic electronic devices

• Grant number: 12/02242-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2012
• End date: November 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Organic Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Erika Soares Bronze-Uhle
• Grantee: João Vitor Paulin
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências (FC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Melanins represent an important class of natural pigments because of their biological properties and technological applications for sunscreen. Can be found naturally in plants and animals. How typical characteristics of these polymers can highlight their dark color, high insolubility, resistance to hydrolysis, lack of regularity, and molecular paramagnetism. In particular, melanin presents interesting optoelectronic properties such as high optical absorption in the UV-Vis range, and good transmission electronic and ionic conductivity appreciably, pointing this biomaterial as a promising active component in organic electronic devices with low environmental impact. Due to the high insolubility of this compound in different solvents and the difficulty in obtaining the material by extraction procedures, different routes of synthesis in vitro have been proposed. The proposed project aims to synthesize and explore the applicability of melanin in devices such as field-effect transistors and photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical devices. Different synthetic routes are used in order to obtain a soluble material.(AU)