Frontiers in Nanotechnology Seminar Series Presents, Eunji Lee from Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology

“Programming the Crystallization-Driven Assembly of Conjugated Block Copolymers into Functional Nanowires”

Conjugated polymers are central to flexible, stretchable and printable electronics, but their performance depends on how their rigid backbones pack and organize. Lee will explain how crystallization-driven self-assembly can turn these polymers into one-dimensional nanowires with ordered molecular packing, and how solvent conditions, temperature, and molecular design shape that process.

Using cryogenic transmission electron microscopy, electron tomography, and in situ liquid-phase microscopy, Lee’s group can observe nanowire formation and structure with exceptional detail. She will present recent work showing how charge transfer can initiate assembly in a single solvent and how separating nanowires by structural order allows researchers to tune charge mobility and stretchability without changing the underlying chemistry. These advances could lead to more reproducible materials for soft electronics, optoelectronics, energy devices and biointegrated systems.

Get to know Eunji

Eunji Lee is a GIST Distinguished Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in the Republic of Korea. She also directs the GIST InnoCORE AI Nano Convergence Institute for Early Detection of Neurodegenerative Diseases and serves as vice president for external affairs at GIST.

Lee studies the hierarchical self assembly of conjugated block copolymers, peptides and other molecular building blocks. Her group combines advanced transmission electron microscopy with artificial intelligence to reveal how soft materials organize and change across multiple length scales. Lee has authored approximately 200 peer reviewed publications and has received honors from the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Chemical Society of Japan and several leading Korean scientific organizations.