Collaborative Research: The Self-Assembly of Functional Nanostructures

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The total solar energy absorbed by the surface of the earth in one hour is nearly equivalent to annual global energy consumption. However, solar power currently contributes very little to these energy requirements due to limited production capacity and the high manufacturing costs of solar cells. The organic nanomaterials developed in this work have the potential to serve as components of organic solar cells, which are expected to be less expensive to manufacture and more broadly useful for a wide range of applications. This NSF-supported research provides insight into the mechanisms of energy transport within nanoscale materials and contributes to the development of new energy conversion technologies to generate, store and distribute energy. Beyond developing strategies for the construction of nanoscale materials, this project introduces a diverse group of students to interdisciplinary science in an effort to expose them to the plethora of opportunities in emerging new technologies.The Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry (MSN) Program supports the work of Professors Jon R. Parquette at the Ohio State University and David A. Modarelli at the University of Akron. The long-term goal of this work is to establish a reliable strategy to assemble small, optoelectronic chromophores into high-aspect-ratio nanostructures with controllable inter-chromophore interactions. Specifically, the researchers are investigating the design and construction of self-assembled, nanostructures containing bicontinuous donor/acceptor heterojunctions with multichromophore gradients in the electron transport channel. These nanomaterials are further studied using ensemble and single-molecule femtosecond spectroscopic techniques to correlate the nature and type of intermolecular interactions within the nanostructures with the corresponding electronic properties. These studies should help to integrate the design and structure of nanoscale organic architectures with their corresponding charge/energy transport properties.