The presentation will be online and in English

Eumelanin, the black-brown biopigment belonging to the melanin family, is a candidate for green electronics. Ubiquitous in flora and fauna, eumelanin is a chemically and structurally disordered biomacromolecule that requires model systems to at least reveal the mechanisms that control the electronic transport physics. Over the last two decades, research on eumelanin has progressed and promoted its potential use in energy storage devices, biosensors, and organic thin-film transistors. However, a well-defined structure-functional property relationship of eumelanin is highly desired to guide the device fabrication with optimized performance. 
In this talk, I will review the current understanding of the charge carrier transport in eumelanin. Then I will discuss the implications of various environmental conditions (ambient, ammonia atmosphere, Nitrogen atmosphere) on the morphological and chemical structure of solution-processed eumelanin films revealed by AFM, IR and UV-vis spectroscopy. 1 The dependence of the HOMO-LUMO gap on film preparation (solution processing vs thermal evaporation), measured by the ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) and inverse photoemission spectroscopy (IPES), will also be discussed. 2 Finally, the provided results pave the way for the design of optimized metal-eumelanin interfaces for green organic electronic applications. 

Biography

Dieudonné obtained his master's degree in engineering physics from the University of Sciences and Technology of Oran in 2016, Algeria. He worked for Lumitel Burundi until 2019 and then joined Polytechnique Montréal, where he is doing his Ph.D. thesis. His work and research interests consist in developing electronic devices using bio-sourced materials among which eumelanin is one of the priorities. Dieudonné is also a trainee student in the CREATE SEED programme (https://www.polymtl.ca/create-seed/en/about) which focuses on promoting sustainability in electronic industries and Eco-design.