The University of Arizona

Medipacs, Inc.

Dominic McGrath

Mark Banister

Neal R Armstrong

Yordan Geronov

Diogenes Placencia

Mayank Mayukh

Described is a super elastic epoxy hydrogel that is easy to manufacture and can be engineered for various performance enhancements of the polymer. Also described are methods of enhancing the performance of this hydrogel and other hydrogels. Various polymer hydrogel composites, structures, and their uses are included, such as the actuator element comprising the hydrogel of the invention depicted in FIG.

Super elastic epoxy hydrogel

A three-dimensional smart polymer matrix is formed by a first epoxy chemical reaction linking a linear polymer chain and a branched polymer chain, wherein the polymer chains are flexible and one or more reactive molecule species remain unreacted, at a predetermined mathematical ratio of reacted to un-reacted molecules and molecule species, and the un-reacted molecular species are available for further chemical reaction, protonation or deprotonation after the first chemical reaction. The resulting smart polymer matrix is hydrophilic and non-soluble to a solvent or electrolyte.

Smart polymer materials with excess reactive molecules

Organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices are disclosed. An exemplary device has first and second electrodes and an organic, photovoltaically active zone located between the first and second electrodes. The photovoltaically active zone includes an organic electron-donor material and an organic electron-acceptor material. The electron-donor material includes one or more trivalent- or tetravalent-metal phthalocyanines with alkylchalcogenide ring substituents, and is soluble in at least one organic solvent. This solubility facilitates liquid-processability of the donor material, including formation of thin-films, on an unlimited scale to form planar and bulk heterojunctions in organic OPVs. These donor materials are photovoltaically active in both visible and near-IR wavelengths of light, enabling more of the solar spectrum, for example, to be applied to producing electricity. Also disclosed are methods for producing the metalated phthalocyanines and actual devices.

Organic photovoltaic devices comprising solution-processed substituted metal-phthalocyanines and exhibiting near-IR photo-sensitivity

The present invention provides conjugated side-strapped phthalocyanines and methods for producing and using the same. In one particular embodiment, the conjugated side-strapped phthalocyanine is of the formula: where each of the substituents are defined herein.

Growing community of inventors

Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Dominic McGrath