Unconventional Liquid Crystals: Design, Synthesis, and Applications

这个项目涉及液晶科学的新概念，具有基础和技术方面。它涉及复杂的有机合成，旨在产生扩展的寡并苯结构，以推进电子材料领域。 苯是电子活性材料，并且从这些板状材料生产液晶具有通过产生具有高载流子迁移率的有组织的无缺陷材料以用于场效应晶体管（FET）来推进有机电子领域的潜力。 在催化领域，将提出新的基本原理，以证明超分子手性可以非常有效地产生对映选择性反应。 该方法与传统的催化剂设计非常不同，传统的催化剂设计将手性支架放置在催化活性位点周围。 多孔膜将产生，可用作负载催化剂在短期内，并可能作为膜的连续过程。 在许多情况下，连续工艺比间歇工艺更有效，从而可以降低精细化学品的制造成本。%液晶科学领域与几个非常重要的技术领域高度相关。这一科学技术领域最明显的成就是液晶显示器的发展，它已成为我们日常生活的一部分。 然而，平面屏幕显示器仅代表可能的不同类型的液晶结构和应用的一小部分。 这项研究旨在扩大液晶的自组织特性的使用，以生产用于形成晶体管和其他有趣的分子电子器件的新型电子材料。 通过设计自组织分子，可以开发出新一代的晶体管，这些晶体管生产成本低，性能高。液晶结构还将用于制造新型催化剂，用于生产新化学品的更有效的连续过程。这些类型的方法可以降低生产成本，并导致更环保的工艺，需要更少的溶剂和产生更少的排放。 这些材料的一个新的方面是，它们将涉及超分子（超过一个分子）结构的设计，以产生控制新化学键形成所需的相互作用。 该项目由材料研究部和化学部共同资助。

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.