Polydays 2012: Polymers and Light

Polymers and light are at the heart of modern science and technologies. The advantageous properties of both biological and synthetic polymers can be customdesigned and fine-tuned by controlling their chemical structure and – often hierarchical – supramolecular organization, in order to obtain functional systems capable of performing complex tasks. Light, on the other hand, provides additional means to fabricate and analyze polymeric systems, but also to control their function.

For example, nature taught us how sunlight can be harvested and converted into electrical energy using organic photovoltaic systems. On the other hand electrical energy can be efficiently converted back into light in polymer-based light-emitting diodes. Moreover, light can be used to modulate the properties of biomacromolecules and actuating polymers, and light in the deep UV has been a driving force behind the miniaturization of semiconductor circuitry based on polymeric photoresist technologies. Last but not least, fundamental insights into the structure and dynamics of polymeric systems can be gained by exploiting the spatial and temporal resolution of light extending into the X-ray and THz regions.

Polydays 2012 aims to highlight the exciting science currently going on at the interface of polymers and light. The Polydays series is organized biannually by the Berlin-Brandenburg Association of Polymer Science (BVP) and dedicated to modern topics of polymer research. This year‘s conference will take place in the Erwin-Schrödinger-Zentrum at the Campus Adlershof of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in the south-east of the city.