CAREER: Building Adaptive Interfaces from Field-Responsive Materials

该提案描述了一个综合的研究和教育计划，研究用于化学分离和传感技术的电活性和导电聚合物的设计和合成。通过在聚合物结构中加入目标官能团，可以操纵聚合物中的化学选择性。聚合物的电活性性质为外部操纵聚合物的性质提供了一种机制，从而导致一类具有可调行为的新型材料。例如，离子选择性可以通过电化学将导电聚合物从其还原绝缘状态切换到氧化导电形式来控制。教育计划包括开发以这些材料的特性为重点的新课程，并重新设计本科实验课程，将这些材料纳入实验课程。

This proposal decsribes an integrated research and educational plan studying the design and synthesis of electroactive and conducting polymers to be used for chemical separations and sensing technologies. Chemical selectivity will be manipulated in the polymers by incorporating targeted fuctional groups in the polymeric structure. The electroactive nature of the polymer provides a mechanism for external manipulation of the polymer's properties leading to a novel class of materials with tunable behavior. Ion selectivity for example, could be controlled by electrochemically switching a conducting polymer from its reduced, insulating state to an oxidized conducting form. The educational plan involves the development of new courses focusing on the properties of these types of materials and redisigning the undergraduate laboratory course to integrate this material into the laboratory cirriculum.