Plastic electronic materials and related science and technology was the topic of discussion at Tokyo Institute of Technology last month.

Plastic electronic materials and related science and technology was the topic of discussion at Tokyo Institute of Technology last month during the third such exchange workshop between the Plastic Electronics Centre for Doctoral Training at Imperial College London and Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Following an opening address by outgoing Dean of the School of Materials and Chemical Technology, Yuji Wada, Prof James Durrant, Director of the Centre for Plastic Electronics, gave the first plenary lecture of the day to discuss charge carrier dynamics in photocatalysts and photoelectrodes for solar driven water splitting. He was followed to the rostrum by Taro Hitosugi (interfaces in solid-state batteries and materials exploration using AI/robots) and Prof Ji-Seon Kim, Director of the Plastic Electronics Centre for Doctoral Training (molecular physics as a critical tool for energy and healthcare materials).

The poster session was well attended, and included PE-CDT student Ross Warren, visiting Tokyo Institute of Technology as part of the PE-CDT's International Exchange Programme. Also presenting a poster from Imperial was PhD student Hao Yan, of Ji-Seon Kim's group.

The afternoon sessions saw further invited talks:

• Fumiyasu Oba: Computational design and exploration of novel semiconductors
• Martin Heeney: Post-polymerisation modification of conjugated polymers
• Ken Nakajima: AFM nanomechanics on polymeric materials
• Martyn McLachlan: Control of microstructure, morphology and defects in perovskite solar cells
• Toshiyuki Ikoma: Multi-functionalized ceramics nanoparticles as cancer therapy
• Artem Bakulin: Ultrafast photocurrent spectroscopy of molecular electronic devices
• Mina Okochi: Peptide array-based functional peptide probe screening
• Teruoki Tago: Catalyst design for effective utilization of hydrocarbon resources