Introduction Room: Aula 4 (NEF) and Zoom

Properties and Applications of Conjugated Polymers

• Stefano Villani

Room: Aula 4 (NEF) and Zoom Conjugated polymers are organic compounds characterized by a backbone chain with an alternation of double/single bonds. This alternation allows the delocalisation of the electrons in the overlapping p-orbitals along the chain, resulting in many interesting and useful optical and electronic properties. The prototype of such systems is polyacetylene (PA), a Nobel-worth semiconducting polymer which paved the road to the field of organic conductors. In this seminar, we will see how the main properties of PA can be described in the framework of a simple 1D toy-model and how, adding some ingredients to PA, we can obtain conjugated polymers with unexpected properties, like piezoelectricity or incredibly high infrared response.

Discussion Room: Aula 4 (NEF) and Zoom

Magnets and magnetic fields

• Elena Blundo (Sapienza, Università di Roma)

Room: Aula 4 (NEF) and Zoom Magnetic fields are ubiquitous in our everyday lives and widely employed in science. They are used, e.g., for credit cards, compasses, electronic devices, trains, and… souvenirs. In science, their widespread application ranges from physics to medicine, biology, and chemistry. Nonetheless, our knowledge of magnetic fields is typically poor. As their uses vary, the magnetic field generation mechanism and strength vary as well (by many orders of magnitude!). Here, we will overview how magnetic fields can be engendered and employed for fun and interesting applications in physics, such as bending beams in accelerators, probing exciton wavefunctions in semiconductors, and making frogs fly.

Discussion Room: Aula 4 (NEF) and Zoom