(Prof. Abdelkader Kara, University of Central Florida, USA)
Extended materials consist of organic molecules fall between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ materials categories and promising novel and useful functionalities. Their growth through self-assembly is, however, not well understood due to the lacking of a detailed understanding of an accurate account of different operative forces, which are responsible for the assembly of materials with varying physical/chemical properties.
I will present results of a detailed computational study of the adsorption of selected groups of organic molecules on metal surfaces with varying geometries and elemental composition. The targeted systems have the potential to serve as efficient devices for solar energy harvesting and for solid-state lighting.
The computational studies use both standard density functional theory (DFT) as well as exploiting the inclusion of dispersive forces (Van der Waals interactions), with the aim of obtaining the effects of dispersive forces and their dependence on the surface chemical properties. I will present the results on how the interface characteristics between the organic materials and metal surfaces change with the characteristics of molecules, the degree of reactivity, as well as the geometry of the surfaces [1-5]. The results obtained for the adsorption of the acenes, the thiols and those molecules with CN groups on several transition metal surfaces (Au, Ag, Cu, Ni, Pd, Pt and Rh) will be presented.

[1] K. Muller et al, J. Phys. Chem C 116, 23465 (2012)
[2] H. Yildirim and A. Kara J. Phys. Chem C 117, 2893 (2013)
[3] H. Yildirim, T. Greber and A. Kara J. Phys. Chem C 117, 20572 (2013)
[4] S. Gottardi et al, Adv. Mater. Int., 1, 1300025 (2014).
[5] J. Matos, T. Rojas, H. Yildirim and A. Kara, J. Chem. Phys., 140 144703 (2014).

Biography of Prof. Abdelkader Kara

Professor Abdelkader Kara joined the Physics Department at the University of Central Florida, the second largest university in the USA. He obtained his PhD in 1985 from the University of Lille and CEA Saclay. He worked at several Universities in the USA and England.
His research activities include the computational study of 2D materials on metal surfaces. Professor Kara has developed several computational tools that include a Real Space Green’s Function method to calculate the phonons of complex materials. He also developed a new smart Kinetic Monte Carlo method (SL-KMC) that uses artificial intelligence.
He is currently exploring the van der Waals effects in organic materials/metal surfaces interactions.
He is one of the pioneers in the field of Silicene, the silicon counterpart of graphene.
Professor Kara published over 150 papers and reviews in high impact journals. He also organizes international meetings in Morocco, France, USA and China.