Presidential Young Investigator Award

在这项总统青年研究员奖中，现代合成有机和有机金属反应将被用于合成新的共轭有机齐聚物和聚合物。分子结构的规划是为了最大限度地提高最终材料的电子(导电)和光子(非线性光学)性能。例如，通过金属催化的交叉偶联反应可以合成平面的聚苯衍生物。然后，每个单体单元中的反应中心将联合起来，迫使最终目标聚合物进入平面构象。这将使传导性研究中的电阻最小化，以及三阶非线性光学研究中的光子损耗最小化。其他研究将涉及手性和光学活性共轭聚合物的合成，这些聚合物由于围绕单键的有限旋转而在主干上是不对称的。

In this Presidential Young Investigator award, modern synthetic organic and organometallic reactions will be used for the synthesis of new conjugated organic oligomers and polymers. The molecular architectures are planned so as to maximize the electronic (conducting) and photonic (nonlinear optical) properties of the final materials. For example, planar polyphenylene derivatives will be synthesized by metal-catalyzed cross coupling reactions. Reactive sites within each monomer unit will then unite to force the final target polymer into a planar conformation. This should minimize the electrical resistance in conductivity studies as well as minimize the photonic loss in third order nonlinear optical studies. Additional studies will involve the synthesis of chiral and optically active conjugated polymers that are asymmetric along their backbone due to restricted rotations around single bonds.