CAREER: Polynuclear Lanthanide-Oxo/Hydroxo Clusters - Design, Preparation, and Applications

这个无机化学、生物无机化学和金属有机化学项目的职业奖项支持亚利桑那大学郑志平教授的研究，他设计和合成了一类新型的多核稀土配合物，研究了这些物质的性质，并探索了它们在生物医学和先进技术方面的应用。主要目标是发展对稀土在生理或更高pH条件下与各种配体的配位化学的基本理解，包括那些与生物相关的配体。这些努力的目的是产生各种具有高度桥联氧基和羟基的前所未有的稀土簇合物，并阐明控制这些新物质形成的因素。有待探索的潜在应用包括用于生物医学成像的造影剂、用于液晶显示器的发光材料和磁光数据存储。这项工作的广泛范围和模块化性质涉及跨学科合作，并为各级学生提供不同的培训机会。根据拟议的研究，建议开展教育活动，旨在建立一个明确的材料化学课程，将其纳入亚利桑那大学的本科生或研究生课程。最终目标是培养出能够设计、合成、表征和测试新材料的科学家，以满足下个世纪对高性能材料的挑战性需求。这一教育项目也将成为向公众传播化学科学的工具。

This CAREER award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program supports research by Professor Zhiping Zheng at the University of Arizona to design and synthesize a novel class of polynuclear lanthanide complexes, to study the properties of these substances, and to explore their biomedical and advanced technological applications.The primary goal is to develop a fundamental understanding of lanthanide coordination chemistry under physiological or higher pH conditions with a variety of ligands, including those that are biologically relevant. These efforts are aimed at producing a variety of unprecedented lanthanide clusters featuring highly bridging oxo and hydroxo groups and at elucidating the factors governing the formation of these novel substances. The potential applications to be explored include contrast agents for biomedical imaging, luminescent materials for liquid crystal displays, and magnetooptical data storage. The broad scope and modular nature of the work involves cross-disciplinary collaborations and provides diverse opportunities for training of students at all levels. In line with the proposed research, educational activities are proposed aimed at establishing a well-defined program in Materials Chemistry integrated into the undergraduate or graduate curricula at the University of Arizona. The ultimate goal is to produce scientists who are capable of designing, synthesizing, characterizing, and testing new materials to meet the challenging demand for advanced-performance materials in the next century. This educational program will also serve as a vehicle to disseminate chemical science to the general public.