Professor Paul Burn

Prof Paul Burn

BSc Hons (Syd), PhD (Syd) Chemistry
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
Professor, Vice-Chancellor's Strategic Research Fellow, FRSC Centre for Organic Photonics & Electronics

Room: 916
Buliding: 68 Chemistry
Phone: +61 7 334 67614
Email: p.burn2@uq.edu.au
Web: uq.edu.au/uqresearchers/researcher/burnp1.html
http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/cope/

Biography

After completing my PhD I carried out post-doctoral research at Cambridge University for four years, being the Dow Research Fellow at Christ’s College for three years. In 1992 I took up a Lectureship in Organic Chemistry at Oxford University and a Tutorial Fellowship at University College, Oxford. In March 2007 I joined The University of Queensland as an ARC Federation Fellow.

Research Interests

Our research interests revolve around "high-tech" materials that can be used in applications such as flat panel displays, solar cells, optical switches, plastic electronics, sensors, and fuel cells. Projects in the Centre range from synthetic chemistry, through physical chemistry and materials science, to theory and prototype device manufacturing and testing. The materials research involves the development of new synthetic methods and strategies, and investigations towards understanding the crucial structure-property relationships in them. This enables us to engineer materials at the molecular level to give optimal performance. Major materials themes are dendrimers, polymers and porphyrins that are comprised of organic and/or inorganic components. In particular the materials we are interested in are classed as “organic semiconductors” and these have electronic properties similar to traditional semiconductors such as silicon but the processability and flexibility of plastics. In addition, we have also started a collaborative program on the development of new vaccine constructs.

Recent Publications

B.-K. An, P. L. Burn, P. Meredith (2009) Enhancing the properties of ruthenium dyes by dendronisation Chem. Mater., 21, 3315-3324.

S.-C. Lo, R. E. Harding, C. P. Shipley, S. G. Stevenson, P. L. Burn, I. D. W. Samuel (2009) High triplet energy dendrons: enhancing the luminescence of deep blue phosphorescent iridium(III) complexes J. Am. Chem. Soc., 131, 16681-16688.

H. Cavaye, A. R. G. Smith, M. James, A. Nelson, P. L. Burn, I. R. Gentle, S.-C. Lo, P. Meredith (2009) Solid-state dendrimers sensors: probing the diffusion of an explosive analogue using neutron reflectivity Langmuir, 25, 12800-12805.

B.-K. An, R. Mulherin, B. Langley, P. Burn, P. Meredith (2009) Ruthenium complex-cored dendrimers: shedding light on efficiency trade-offs in dye-sensitised solar cells Organic Electronics, 10, 1356-1363.

R. J. van Vuuren, K. D. Johnstone, S. Ratnasingam, H. Barcena, P. C. Deakin, A. K. Pandey, P. L. Burn, S. Collins, I. D. W. Samuel (2010) Determining the absorption tolerance of single chromophore photodiodes for machine vision Appl. Phys. Lett., 96, 253303 (3 pages).

M. Aljada, K. Mutkins, G. Vamvounis, P. Burn, P. Meredith (2010) High quality shadow masks for top contact organic field effect transistors using deep reactive ion etching J. Micromech. Microeng., 2010, 20, 075037 (6 pages).

S. V. Vickers, H. Barcena, K. A. Knights, R. K. Thomas, J.-C. Ribierre, S. Gambino, I. D. W. Samuel, P. L. Burn, and Giovanna Fragneto (2010) Light-emitting dendrimer film morphology: A neutron reflectivity study Appl. Phys. Lett., 96, 263302 (3 pages).

W.-Y. Lai, J. W. Levell, A. C. Jackson, S.-C. Lo, P. V. Bernhardt, I. D. W. Samuel, P. L. Burn (2010) A phosphorescent poly(dendrimer) containing iridium(III) complexes: synthesis and light-emitting properties Macromolecules, 43, 6986-6994.

Recent Research Support

• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK): Optimum Detectors for Artificial Object Recognition; Multilayer photopatterned LEDs for colour displays
• ARC Federation Fellowship
• UQ: Creation of the Centre for Organic Semiconductor Research comprising state-of-the art synthesis and characterization facilities, clean room and device fabrication and testing equipment
• ARC Discovery grant: “Macromolecular materials for organic solar cells”
• ARC Discovery grant: “Dendrimers: multidimensional sensors”
• ARC Linkage portable sensor for explosives”
• QLD Government NIRAP: “Organic solar cell alliance”
• Australian Solar Institute: “New Materials and Architectures for Organic Solar Cells – Beyond the Shockley-Queisser Limit”

Patents

30 Patent Applications in the areas of conjugated polymers and dendrimers.

Recent Supervision

PhD: 18
Honours: 5

Other Activities

• Co-founder of Cambridge Display Technology Ltd.
• Editorial Board Member - Polymer Chemistry.

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