CAREER: Driving the Development of Functional Polymeric Materials with Innovative Chemical Synthesis: Creating New Opportunities in Research and Education

凭借这一职业奖项，有机和高分子化学项目正在支持德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校化学和生物化学系教授Christopher W.Bielawski的研究和教育目标。Bielawski教授将使用多位卡宾作为构建块，开发具有刺激响应特性的导电聚合物。该项目的研究目标是将有用的电子性质集成到刺激响应性、结构动态的聚合物中。在这种功能材料中添加电子元件是一项根本性的挑战，它将有助于目前对分子结构和成键、化学反应和聚合物合成的了解。这一挑战将通过使能够与有机和无机底物形成可逆加合物的多位卡宾应用于新的聚合反应来解决。设计的方法还有一个额外的好处，丰富了卡宾的化学，同时开辟了高分子科学的新维度。在有机化学和高分子化学项目的这一职业奖项的支持下，比尔夫斯基教授将开发具有性能的材料，这些材料有望在电子元件和设备中找到许多实际应用。例如，自我修复电子电路，能够响应外部刺激重新布线的可重新配置的电子系统，以及在分子级电路中建立电子连接的新化学方法，都是该项目预期的结果。由于拟议研究的多学科性质，参与该项目的学生将在广泛的科学概念和技术方面获得经验。Bielawski教授还积极参与旨在培训本科生和研究生的有机、有机金属和聚合物化学的教育项目。他将开发关于大分子化学主题的免费讲座和实验室课程，并邀请来自德克萨斯州的预科学生参加与聚合物相关的暑期研究项目。

With this CAREER award, the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program is supporting the research and educational goals of Professor Christopher W. Bielawski of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. Using multitopic carbenes as building blocks, Professor Bielawski will develop conductive polymers with stimuli-responsive characteristics. The research objective of this project is to integrate useful electronic properties into stimuli-responsive, structurally dynamic polymers. Adding an electronic component to such functional materials is a fundamental challenge that will contribute to current knowledge of molecular structure and bonding, chemical reactivity, and polymer synthesis. This challenge will be addressed by adapting multitopic carbenes capable of forming reversible adducts with organic and inorganic substrates into new polymerization reactions. The designed approach has an added benefit of enriching the chemistry of carbenes while opening a new dimension in macromolecular science.With the support of this CAREER award from the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program, Professor Bielwski will develop materials with properties that are expected to find a number of practical applications in electronic components and devices. For example, self-healing electronic circuits, reconfigurable electronic systems capable of rewiring themselves in response to externally applied stimuli, and new chemical methods for establishing electronic connections in molecular-scale circuits are anticipated results from this project. Inherent to the multidisciplinary nature of the proposed research, students working on this project will gain experience in a wide range of scientific concepts and techniques. Professor Bielawski is also actively involved in educational programs designed to train undergraduate and graduate students in organic, organometallic, and polymer chemistry. He will develop complimentary lecture and laboratory courses on the subject of macromolecular chemistry, and engage pre-college students from the state of Texas in polymer-related summer research programs.