Unconventional Liquid Crystals: Design, Synthesis, and Applications

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This project addresses new concepts for liquid crystal science that have fundamental and technological facets. It involves complicated organic synthesis directed at producing extended oligo-acene structures to advance the field of electronic materials. Acenes are electronically active materials, and producing liquid crystals from these board-like materials has the potential to advance the field of organic electronics by creating organized defect free materials with high carrier mobilities for application in Field Effect Transistors (FETs). In the area of catalysis, new fundamental principles will be advanced to demonstrate that supramolecular chirality can be highly effective in producing enantioselective reactions. The approach is very different from conventional catalyst design that places chiral scaffolds about a catalytic active site. Porous films will be generated that can be used as supported catalysts in the near term and potentially as membranes for continuous processes. Continuous processes are in many cases more efficient than batch processes and can thereby lower the manufacturing costs of fine chemicals. %%%The area of liquid crystal science has high relevance to several very important areas of technology. The most evident accomplishment of this field of science and technology is the development of liquid crystal displays that have become part of our everyday life. However, flat screen displays represent only a small portion of the different types of liquid crystal structures and applications that are possible. This research seeks to expand the use of the self-organization properties of liquid crystals to produce novel electronic materials for the formation of transistors and other interesting molecular electronic devices. By designing self-organizing molecules new generations of transistors can be developed that are inexpensive to produce and have high performance. Liquid crystal structures will also be used to create new types of catalysts for use in more efficient continuous processes for the production of new chemicals. These types of methods can lower production costs and lead to more environmentally friendly processes that require less solvent and generate fewer emissions. A novel aspect of these materials is that they will involve the design of supramolecular (beyond one molecule) structures to create the needed interactions that will control the formation new chemical bonds. This project is co-funded by the Division of Materials Research and the Chemistry Division.