Inorganic Sol-Gel Glasses Containing Organic and Organometallic Molecules (Materials Research)

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This proposal is being awarded under the Materials Chemistry Initiative; the research program is at the interface between chemistry and materials science. New types of organic/inorganic materials will be developed by embedding organic or organometallic molecules in an inorganic matrix. This program has two fundamental goals, one of which is materials science oriented, the other of which is chemically oriented. The first goal involves characterization of the gel and gel-glass. The technical objective here is to use various organic and organometallic molecules to characterize certain aspects of the sol-gel process and to determine the conditions which the matrix imposes on the embedded molecules. Spectroscopic studies on the topics of site polarity, pressure effects and site symmetry are likely to provide significant information regarding the chemical and structural changes which occur during sol-gel processing. The second goal is to study the fundamental photochemistry and spectroscopy of the molecules in the sol-gel glass matrix. These investigations will be the first of their kind. In most cases the selected molecules are those which cannot be studied easily, if at all, in standard organic glasses. The results of the research are expected to be significant both scientifically and technologically. There will be investigations of several photochemical issues which are of fundamental importance and the understanding of the sol-gel materials and their processing will be improved. There are also plans to explore the possibility of creating new materials with interesting properties in the areas of photochromism, optical switching, ferroelectricity and optical read/write phenomena.