Hierarchical Self-Organization of Functional Materials

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The Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program in the Chemistry Division at the National Science Foundation supports Professor Charles M. Drain of the City University of New York (CUNY) Hunter College for a research project that will continue pushing the limits of self-assembly and self-organization to create functional photonic materials and prototypical devices that contain various porphyrinoids and other highly stable dyes. Porphyrinoids such as porphyrins, phthalocyanines, and porphyrazines are a class of remarkably robust dyes that have a broad range of chemical, physical, and photonic properties. The range of properties is significantly expanded by the binding of metal ions and by peripheral substitution. One of the goals of the research is to understand fundamental principles of supramolecular chemistry related to the hierarchical organization of molecules and atoms. Conceptually, there are four levels describing the organization of matter: (1) molecular structure, (2) supramolecular structure, (3) self-organization into solid-state materials and (4) self-organization of these materials onto surfaces in devices, which includes interconnections to the macroscopic world. The correlation of hierarchical structure with photonic properties will lead to new design principles and materials with enhanced functions. These results will lead to a better understanding of hierarchical organization in natural systems, and provide a roadmap to the construction of other complex self-organized materials with designed functionality. The systematic comparison of the photonic properties of component molecules, discrete self-assembled arrays and self-organized materials, is an explicit part of the proposal. Though every supramolecular design may not result in the predicted structures, unexpected results can be very informative in terms of understanding intermolecular interactions and the response of these materials to environment changes and deposition onto surfaces. The results of the proposed research will significantly increase the repertoire of self-assembly/organization concepts that underpin the design of hierarchical functional materials for an array of applications beyond photonic materials.Broader impacts of the proposed research include the training of a diverse population of students. Because of Professor Drain's vigorous, proactive recruiting of a diverse population of students, his lab consists of approximately 50% women and 50% minorities in STEM areas. Former minority undergraduates are now in Ph.D. programs or have graduated from universities such as Rockefeller, Berkeley, Columbia, and Cornell. Thus, the education and training of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM continues to be a hallmark of Professor Drain's research program. A new Analytical chemistry lab at Hunter College is proposed (30-40 majors per year will take the course) that will focus on state of the art instrumentation and assays that are specifically derived from the prior NSF-sponsored research on porphyrin materials.