Molecular-Level Studies of Structure and Photophysics in Conjugated Polymers

共轭聚合物是一类既具有传统聚合物的物理特性，同时又具有经典无机半导体的电子和光学特性的材料。就科学技术整体而言，这些聚合物正在成为开发新设备技术的主流基石。这种进化的进步是基于材料合成、加工及其应用的科学技术的广泛进步。在分子水平上，它们仍然是高度复杂的材料，存在许多长期存在的问题，并且由于对分子水平工程的渴望，许多涉及微妙结构/性质关系的新问题。理解和控制最短长度尺度（0.1- 10nm）的三维组织仍然是确定其在现实世界应用潜力和确定始终存在的局限性的核心问题。这一倡议代表了一组重点研究项目，将加强对共轭聚合物结构，结构相行为的基本理解，此外，结构对技术上重要的光物理性质的影响。直接衍射研究、分子建模和结构精细技术的结合构成了这些努力的核心，这些将用于澄清与最高度有序材料的分子水平结构有关的问题。即使在最好的情况下，这些共轭聚合物通常也包括沿骨架骨架的多个构象序列。因此，对这些结构/性质关系的适当计算需要结合其他技术（包括光吸收，光致发光和拉曼光谱）的更综合的方法。新的聚合物加工技术和广泛使用的原位方法也将被开发。在更广泛的层面上，这项研究包括融合多种技术和跨学科合作的活动，以一致和全面地解决局部共轭聚合物结构及其对显著光物理的影响的核心问题。这项工作的一个重要组成部分是可移植性和科学界的可访问性。这将通过一系列选定的新方向来实现。在可能的最大程度上，所有新的实验发展将依赖于网络可访问的仪器接口和标准化的分层数据格式。这些特点将为研究生和本科生提供便利。最终，通过本研究过程中发展的知识和技术将为这些不同材料的结构、演变以及与光物理的直接关系等问题提供非常基本和准确的答案。

Conjugated polymers represent a class of materials that incorporate the physical attributesof conventional polymers and, simultaneously, electronic and optical properties more often associated with classic inorganic semi-conductors. In terms of science and technology as a whole, these polymers are becoming a mainstream building block for developing new device technologies. This evolutionary progress is based on widespread advancements in materials synthesis, processing and in the science and technology of their applications. At the molecular level they remain highly complex materials with numerous long-standing questions and, given the desire for molecular level engineering, a multitude of newer issuesconcerning subtle structure/property relationships. Understanding and controlling the three-dimensional organization at the shortest length scales (0.1-10 nm) remains a central issue for defining their potential in real world applications and identifying the ever present limitations.This initiative represents a focused set of research projects that will enhance the fundamentalunderstanding of structure, structural phase behavior in conjugated polymers and, additionally, the impact that structure has on technologically important photophysical properties. A combination of direct diffraction studies, molecular modeling and structure refinement techniques constitute the core of these efforts and these will be used for clarifying issues pertaining to molecular-level structure in the most highly ordered materials. Even in the best cases these conjugated polymers often include multiple conformational sequences along the skeletal backbone. Therefore a proper accounting of these structure/property relationshipsnecessitates a more integrated approach combining other techniques (including photoabsorption, photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy). Novel polymer processing techniques and extensive use of in situ methodologies will also be exploited.On a broader level this research includes activities which meld multiple techniques and interdisciplinary collaborations in order to congently and comprehensively address central issues of local conjugated polymer structure and its impact on salient photophysics. An important component of this work is portability and accessibility to the science community. This will be accomplished through a set of selected new directions. To the fullest extent possible, all new experimental developments will rely on web-accessible instrumentationinterfaces and standardized hierarchal data formats. These attributes will provide ready access to students both at the graduate and undergraduate level. Ultimately the knowledge and techniques developed though the course of this research will provide very basic and accurate answers to questions of structure, its evolution and the direct relationship to photophysics within these diverse materials.