Our group’s contribution to this collaborative program of INN, focused on 

(i) Transport properties of polymeric materials for potential use as encapsulants for the protection of devices (e.g. organic photovoltaics) from environmental factors affecting the device’s lifetime and reliable functioning. A proper encapsulant for organic photovoltaic devices must possess satisfactory barrier properties to oxygen and moisture, transparency and flexibility . 

Several commercial polymeric materials were evaluated in respect to their oxygen and moisture permeability properties and the results were interpreted on the basis of the solution-diffusion theory

(ii) Mechanical and thermal properties of polypropylene-graphene composites.

Encapsulation of graphene in polypropelyne films is considered a method to enhance the barrier as well as the mechanical properties of the polymer in packaging applications. Composite films of different compositions were characterized in respect to their thermal and tensile mechanical properties.