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With the miniaturization and integration of electronics into more powerful but smaller functional devices, major challenges arise. One of them is to efficiently dissipate the significant amount of thermal energy produced by these electronic devices. This requires interface materials with good thermal management properties. Reduced graphene oxide has attracted a lot of interest in this area due to its good thermal conductivity, similar with those of pristine graphene. In this work, polymethylmethacrylate/reduced graphene oxide (PMMA/RGO) composite thin films have been generated by drop casting mixtures of PMMA solutions and RGO suspensions, all prepared in N,N‐dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent. Raman, SEM and AFM investigations confirmed that homogenous PMMA/RGO composite thin films have been obtained, with RGO being uniformly distributed in the blending. Further measurements demonstrated that the thermal conductivity of RGO/PMMA composites increased with the concentration of RGO in the polymeric mixture: for the highest RGO content, the thermal conductivity increased by 210%, with no important modifications of electrical resistivity. These results are very promising for the development of new thermal interface materials based on PMMA/RGO composites to be used, for instance, in automotive industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many technological applications that have had tremendous impact on our society and lifestyle are exploiting the emission properties of organic species such as conjugated polymers and organic small-molecule semiconductors. The most prominent case-in-point here are possibly organic light-emitting diodes, which have found use in information displays, touch screens and beyond. To further advance the rapid development of these powerful and versatile technologies, it will be of paramount importance to gain fundamental insights about which strategies and processes we can employ to alter, control and eventually enhance the emission properties of this interesting class of material. In this work, we focus on macromolecular systems and review the most important categories of tools that can be employed to efficiently alter their emission properties by manipulating their molecular architecture and electronic structure; by influencing their molecular ordering, packing motifs and overall microstructure; as well as by utilizing the ability of some of these materials to respond to external stimuli and other physical parameters (pressure, light exposure etc.) and/or to interact with other compounds, including systems of different functionalities. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]