CAREER: Preparation of Materials Composed of Mechanically Interlocked Nanoscale Species

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。美国国家科学基金会化学部的有机和大分子化学项目支持德克萨斯理工大学的Michael F. Mayer教授，他提出的研究项目是建立新的、可控的合成方法，以获取由互锁分子物种组成的新化合物和具有可移动滑链（滑动交联）的新聚合物材料，并将其应用于橡胶弹性理论的研究和进步。由机械互锁的分子水平组分组成的材料通常具有与由相同但其他方面不互锁的分子水平组分组成的材料不同的新颖的和实质上不同的体积物理性质。不幸的是，目前控制合成互锁分子的能力非常有限，而且在大分子和聚合物物种中，对纠缠类型和互锁程度的合成控制几乎是不存在的。这项研究将产生新的工艺，以获得聚合物的类别，如聚假环烷、环和无环聚轮烷、菊链聚合物以及具有可移动滑联交联的创新聚合物材料。一种新型的聚合物交联尚未在橡胶块体材料中使用，但几十年来一直引起人们的极大兴趣。生产具有可移动滑动链接（滑动交联）的聚合物材料的新能力将产生新材料，这些新材料可能是实验探测的理想候选者，有助于开发聚合物纠缠的理论模型。因此，这种变革性的方法可能有助于促进对聚合物材料中橡胶样弹性的理解，这是聚合物科学的长期追求。此外，由于所提出材料的独特分子结构，该材料有望具有新的粘弹性特性，这可能使它们适合各种利基应用。拟议的教育活动以数字化记录和上传化学内容为中心。这将对内容的生产者和消费者产生积极的影响。生产者，例如化学专业的学生，ACS的学生分支机构，本科生研究人员和韦尔奇暑期学者（高中生），将从参与真正的现代教学形式中受益。受益最深远的将是消费者，即广泛定义为化学学生的消费者，他们来自当地、国家和国际各地，可以自由地参与非正式的、网络支持的、以探究为基础的英语和西班牙语化学教育。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program in the Chemistry Division at the National Science Foundation supports Professor Michael F. Mayer at Texas Tech University whose proposed research project is to establish new, controlled synthetic methods to access new compounds composed of interlocked molecular species and new polymeric materials with mobile slip-links (sliding crosslinks) and apply them to the study and advancement of the theory of rubber elasticity. Materials composed of mechanically interlocked molecular-level species often possess novel and substantially different bulk physical properties than materials composed of identical but otherwise non-interlocked molecular-level species. Unfortunately, the current ability to controllably synthesize interlocked molecules is quite limited and synthetic control over the type of entanglement and degree of interlocking is virtually non-existent in macromolecular and polymeric species. This research will result in new processes for accessing classes of polymers known as polypseudorotaxanes, cyclic and acyclic polyrotaxanes, daisy-chain polymers as well as innovative polymeric materials with mobile slip-link crosslinks ? a novel type of polymer crosslink that has not been available in rubbery bulk materials but has been of great interest for several decades. The new ability to produce polymeric materials with mobile slip-links (sliding crosslinks) will result in new materials which may be ideal candidates for experimental probing to aid development of theoretical models of polymer entanglements. This transformative methodology may, therefore, help advance the understanding of rubber-like elasticity in polymeric materials, a long-standing pursuit of polymer science. Furthermore, by virtue of the unique molecular structure of the proposed materials, the materials are expected to possess novel viscoelastic properties which may make them suitable for a variety of niche applications. The proposed educational activities center on digitally recording and uploading chemistry content to the internet. This will positively impact both the producers and the consumers of the content. The producers, for example chemistry majors, student affiliates of the ACS, undergraduate researchers and Welch Summer Scholars (high school students), will benefit from participating in a truly modern form of pedagogy. The farthest-reaching benefit will be for the consumers, identified as chemistry students, broadly defined, from local, national and international locations, who may freely participate in informal, cyber-enabled, inquiry-based chemistry education in both English and Spanish.