University of Groningen
Towards conjugated polymers with low exciton binding energy
Zhou, Difei
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Publication date: 2018
Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database
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Zhou, D. (2018). Towards conjugated polymers with low exciton binding energy. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
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Acknowledgements
Eindelijk, hier ben ik.
Memory is weird and lovely at the same time. We can sense a lot of things like they’re from yesterday, though they’re obviously years ago, or millions of seconds to count. For example, I remember vividly my first travel to the Netherlands. I already had a light cold, and the unexpected low temperatures in the plane made it a bit worse. But happily then, the magic weather of Groningen cured me! (Thank you, Groningen~) From there, I had a feeling that the following years in Groningen would be unforgettable. And now, I know it will be unforgettable.
First and foremost, I convey my heartfelt thanks to my promotor, prof. dr. J. C. (Kees) Hummelen, for taking the risk of accepting me as one of his PhD students, and for supervising me during the past years. It has been quite a journey. It was a bit more challenging than I expected, and it took a bit longer than we expected. But happily in the end, I am proud to say that I made it. This has no way been possible without his supervision. Kees has a superpower of inspiring and encouraging fellows like me, and hopefully I can learn this from him, and make use of it in the coming future. It was almost the end of my PhD years when I came to realize that the study of exciton binding energy on organic materials could be extremely challenging (maybe even improbable). For this, I must thank Kees for the numerous discussions, and his help in organizing discussions with many other people. Also I must say thank you for the incredible help in finalizing my thesis. It was not just the general, structural advices that helped improve this book, but also the countless details such as wording, fonts, and typos. When I was applying his corrections, I felt genuinely that I owe him a big thank you on this manuscript. I could not list here everything that comes to my mind, that would take another thesis. So, my hearty thank you to Kees, for the professional, generous and kind help in many perspectives.
Next, I would like to give my sincere thanks to my co-promotor, prof. dr. R. C. Chiechi. When I first started to work with him, I was overwhelmed by the tremendous amount of knowledge in him. Later, I see in him a rare pro-active attitude towards science advancement. I naturally thank him for his generous help, particularly in all aspects of Chapter 2 and quite a part of Chapter 3. But also, I am very thankful, that after all of this, I can clearly see that I have a much clearer understanding about fundamental science. This would not have happened without all the technical assistances, idea formulations, as well as the many discussions that helped shaping the mind of a PhD student.
Especially, I thank prof. dr. Remco Havenith, for his incredible help in our study on exciton binding energy. I cannot remember how many times (a thousand?) I walked into his office, took a seat by his desk, and started talking and listening. Thank you for the great knowledge, and also for the great passion and kindness. Also, I thank Ms. Maria Izquierdo, for her generous help in a large part of the quantum
112 chemical calculations. I remember vividly how hungry I was after the three of us finished an hours-long discussion. It was this kind of help from both of you, that enabled me to put a decent end to my thesis. Also, I would like to thank prof. dr. L. Jan Anton Koster and prof. dr. Maria Antonietta Loi, for their generous help in our joint research.
Alongside my supervisors and the many colleagues at work, I must also give my sincere thanks to the members of the reading committee, prof. dr. H. B. Braam, prof. dr. K. U. Loos and prof. dr. W. Maes. Thank you all for finding time in your busy schedules to read my thesis, and thank you very much for your corrections/suggestions. They make my thesis appears as a piece of work that is more carefully thought-through. I have got quite some experience in MALDI-TOF work at the spectroscopy center of the UMCG. In this respect, I would like to thank dr. H.P. (Hjalmar) Permentier, for his kind technical help and useful discussions on mass spectra.
I was fortunate enough to be a member of the CMMD group led by Kees and Ryan. Here, I have received very much help from my colleagues. Allow me not to list everything I am thankful for, but to list all their names! Please kindly forgive me if I have forgotten to include some. Thank you all, Reinder, Rick, Wenqiang, Zhiyuan, Davide, Thomas, Thijs, Oleg, Jenny, Mehrnoosh, Parisa, Olga, Gang, Gongbao, Yanxi, Xinkai, Andrew, Marco, Viktor, Yong, Dang, Alfred, Sylvia, Yuru… … Thank Nutifafa for the nice collaborations in the clean room, thank Oleg, Davide, Solmaz, Musty and Honghua for the generous help with many measurements, thank Bouke for his kind help with translation of the summary, thank Yanxi and Viktor for being my paranymphs in my defense… … Especially, I would like to thank Renate Hekkema for her taking care of all administrative tasks, and kindly helping everyone as much she could.
I must also give my sincere thanks to prof. dr. Peng Wang, my supervisor when I was a master student. There are a few names that have observably changed the course of my life, and Wang is one of them. I look up to him as a hard-core scientist, an extremely strict mentor, a rare genius, and yes, a person who would heartily care about others in his own way. Though we did not have much contact after I left, I have never forgotten his mentoring, from which I will benefit for my whole life. Also, I would like to give special thanks to another mentor of mine, Mrs. Jufen Liu, my Chinese teacher 18 years ago. It must have been my great fortune to be a student of her. For the first time I developed a gratitude to a teacher, that she has changed the course of my life greatly.
And now, my most genuine thank you to my loving family. Life is simply impossible without any of the beautiful support from my lovely wife, Guanfang, my parents, my brother, and of course my many old friends (Jiang Jiao, Hu Dingyi, Chang xuefeng, Chen Peng… …). It is here that I get the most powerful support of all at all times. Not too many words here, but yes, you are all my sun and sea.
