From Side Chains to Solid-State Properties: Molecular Design and Accelerated Discovery of Semiconducting Polymers for Organic Electronics
Simon Rondeau-Gagné
Associate Professor Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Windsor
October 27, 2026
1:30 p.m.
In-person: C2-361
Abstract: π-Conjugated polymers combine efficient charge transport, tunable optical properties, mechanical compliance and solution processability, making them attractive active materials for flexible and printed electronics. In most of these materials, side chains serve primarily as solubilizing groups, with long alkyl chains appended to the conjugated backbone to enable processing from organic (and often chlorinated) solvents. However, side chains also govern how polymer chains pack, interact and respond in the solid state, which makes them an effective handle for introducing new properties into semiconducting polymers. Nonetheless, predicting and controlling these properties through rational side-chain design remains challenging, owing to the complex interplay between chemical structure, solid-state organization and the resulting material properties. Therefore, designing side chains that go beyond solubility, while developing faster ways to map how these structural changes translate into solid-state properties, offers a route to semiconducting polymers that are both more sustainable and more functional.
Our group has developed side-chain designs that impart functions beyond solubility. Carbohydrate-based side chains, for example, provide polarity and hydrogen-bonding capacity that enable processing from less toxic solvents while influencing solid-state packing and thin-film morphology. Chiral side chains can direct the supramolecular helical assembly of conjugated polymers and give rise to chiroptical properties. Other designs incorporate groups capable of forming dynamic bonds, which disrupt chain stacking and yield more amorphous and mechanically compliant films. Finally, we have extended the carbohydrate approach to the conjugated backbone, where carbohydrate-derived linkages act as cleavable sites that impart degradability under mild conditions while preserving the electronic properties required for device operation.
This presentation will provide an overview of these side-chain design strategies, emphasizing the structure-property relationships uncovered through thin-film morphology characterization and device studies in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). We will also introduce our new materials discovery platform, which accelerates the synthesis, processing and screening of conjugated polymer libraries to address the challenge of linking side-chain structure to solid-state properties. By combining rational molecular design with this accelerated workflow, we aim to shorten the path from new building blocks to functional and sustainable materials for flexible electronics.
Simon Rondeau-Gagné is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Windsor and holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Advanced Materials Science. He received his PhD in chemistry from Université Laval under the supervision of Prof. Jean-François Morin. From 2014 to 2016, he was an FRQNT postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, working in the laboratory of Prof. Zhenan Bao. He joined the University of Windsor in 2016 as an Assistant Professor of Materials Chemistry and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2021. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles, and his contributions have been recognized with several awards, including the 2025 NOVA Chemicals Early Career Investigator Award from the Chemical Institute of Canada and selection as a 2025 Polymer Chemistry Pioneering Investigator by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
The Rondeau-Gagné group focuses its research on the development and synthesis of new materials for the next generation of electronic devices. The group has multidisciplinary expertise spanning the full range of materials chemistry, from the design and synthesis of materials to the fabrication and optimization of electronic devices. Throughout the group’s research, particular emphasis is placed on supramolecular chemistry and self-assembly to design new stretchable and self-healing polymers that can be used as active materials in devices such as transistors and sensors. The group is also particularly interested in molecular design and stretchability in advanced functional polymers, contributing to the emergence of more efficient, sustainable and advanced technologies with applications in electronics, nanotechnology and health.