Location: London, UK

What do you do?

The Centre for Plastic Electronics at Imperial College uses conducting polymers to make flexible electronic devices like LEDs and solar cells. The conducting polymers can dissolve in common organic solvents, so we can make semiconducting inks that can be printed on plastic substrates.  I spend a lot of time using microscopes and lasers to figure out how individual units of the molecules are aligned, and how we can improve that for speedy charge transport. We run and heat up the devices to see how the molecules behave when they’re working to better inform chemists about molecular design.

What can I see?

We work in a laser lab on the 10th floor in the Blackett Laboratory of Imperial College London, SW7, so the windows are all blacked out. When we’re doing Atomic Force Microscopy we can sneak the blinds open (it’s not light sensitive) and look east across London.

When I’m not doing science I…

Tell people how great science is, cycle, swim, cook and support Arsenal FC.