Contact Information

MIT Department of Chemistry
Room 6-234
Cambridge, MA 02139

mit.edu email: mcmahond

Year joined: 2012

Education

2011PhD in ChemistryUniversity of WarwickAdvisor: Alessandro Troisi
2007MChem in ChemistryUniversity of Warwick

Research Interests

Organic Semiconductors

Devices based on organic materials have been investigated for numerous years as potential replacements for their inorganic counterparts, one example of which is in photovoltaic devices where light is converted into electrical work. Research conducted during my PhD focused on understanding the relation between the chemical composition, morphology and the charge transport properties in both molecular and polymeric organic semiconductors using a combination of classical and quantum chemical approaches. The work on polymeric organic semiconductors was extended to a prototypical organic photovoltaic device in which an electron donor (P3HT) and acceptor (PCBM) form an interface. A Molecular Dynamics/Quantum Chemical approach was used to investigate the impact on the electronic and geometrical structure as a result of the presence of the interface. From this we were able to provide insights into why the charge-separation process in P3HT/PCBM is so efficient.

Currently, my research is focused on understanding the process of singlet exciton fission in organic materials, in which one singlet exciton splits into two triplet excitons, through the use of a diverse range of computational techniques.


Page last modified on March 17, 2013, at 03:11 PM