Felix Fischer | Research UC Berkeley

Research Expertise and Interest

Organic and Inorganic Materials Chemistry, Supramolecular Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry, Molecular Electronics

Research Description

My research interests focus on the rational design, deterministic assembly, and detailed investigation of the exotic physical phenomena emerging from quantum confinement effects in nanomaterials. I lead a highly integrated multidisciplinary research program, founded on modular bottom-up organic synthesis of functional materials with precisely defined structure, their controlled assembly into hierarchically ordered architectures, and the evaluation of emergent physical properties across multiple length, time, and energy scales. As part of my research I strive to understand, fine-tune, and ultimately harness the exceptional properties of nanoscale materials by developing a suite of novel synthetic tools that offer an unprecedented atomically precise control over intrinsic geometric parameters as length, width, symmetry, and electronic structure.

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In the News

Building the Materials for Next-Gen Tech

Felix Fischer, a 2022 Heising-Simons Faculty Fellow, uses his organic chemistry background to build materials for next-generation computers, sensors and communications platforms.

New Institute Brings Together Chemistry and Machine Learning to Tackle Climate Change

A new UC Berkeley institute will bring together top machine learning and chemistry researchers to make this vision a reality, and a Bay Area foundation is providing a substantial gift to launch and enable this work at UC Berkeley over the next five years.

Scanning tunneling microscope image of a zigzag graphene nanoribbon

Technique Tunes Into Graphene Nanoribbons’ Electronic Potential

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley have developed a method to stabilize the edges of graphene nanoribbons and directly measure their unique magnetic properties.

graphic of a dark-orange nanoribbon with periodic white hills indicating electrons

Metal wires of carbon complete toolbox for carbon-based computers

Transistors based on carbon rather than silicon could potentially boost computers’ speed and cut their power consumption more than a thousandfold — think of a mobile phone that holds its charge for months — but the set of tools needed to build working carbon circuits has remained incomplete until now.

Tying electrons down with nanoribbons

UC Berkeley scientists have discovered possible role for narrow strips of graphene, called nanoribbons, as nanoscale electron traps with potential applications in quantum computers.

Illustration of Pyrene molecules, which are four-ring, 16-carbon polycyclic hydrocarbons, are likely formed around giant stars.

How to make space molecules

How could complex carbon-based molecules – a rich zoo of chemical compounds formed from fused rings of carbon and hydrogen – possibly form in the cold vacuum of space?

From the Bottom Up: Manipulating Nanoribbons at the Molecular Level

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a new precision approach for synthesizing graphene nanoribbons from pre-designed molecular building blocks. Using this process the researchers have built nanoribbons that have enhanced properties—such as position-dependent, tunable bandgaps—that are potentially very useful for next-generation electronic circuitry.