CAREER: Bottom-Up Approaches for Precisely Nanostructuring Hybrid Organic/Inorganic Multi-Component Composites

本项目旨在建立一个综合的教育和研究计划，利用从自然中借鉴的自下而上的自组装方法，在纳米尺度上构建精确控制的结构，生产性能和稳定性增强的有机太阳能电池。对分子相互作用和控制特殊设计分子自组装过程的材料结构参数的复杂协同效应的基本理解将旨在。将开发用于构建半导体聚合物和嵌段共聚物的新设计和合成方法，并建立有关新制备材料的结构-性能关系的基本知识基础。这些发现不仅将推动基础科学的发展，而且还可以扩展到有机电子应用的广泛材料和分层纳米结构。从事这些项目的学生将获得跨学科的知识和技能，这将有利于他们未来的科学事业。强调材料化学和能源研究的新课程将在未来几年不断发展和完善。一项旨在吸引新墨西哥州K-12学生，特别是西班牙裔和印第安人进入科学领域的推广计划将被建立。这些历史上代表性不足的学生将通过对新墨西哥大学校园进行为期一天的实地考察，获得化学和材料科学方面的实践经验。总的来说，拟议的活动不仅将推进基础科学，而且还将促进培养一批对社会未来产生积极影响的不同技术科学家的使命。纳米结构有机聚合物和有机/无机杂化材料以及在分子水平上控制共混形态已成为现代电子器件的先决条件。为了实现全面的高性能，通常将多个有机和无机实体（每个实体都设计用于特定功能）集成到单个器件中。在这些多组分系统中，当前最先进的形貌控制方法通常涉及物理混合和通过热/溶剂退火进行优化。然而，这种试错方法高度依赖于系统，在分子水平上缺乏可控性，并且通常只导致热力学亚稳态的形态。通过提出的研究，将创建一个多功能的超分子化学工具箱，能够通过多个正交非共价相互作用的合作，精确地构建多组分有机/无机杂化材料的纳米结构。专门为聚合物太阳能电池应用设计的材料，包括具有不同带隙的有机/有机金属共轭嵌段共聚物，具有互补吸收谱的量子点和作为电子受体的富勒烯衍生物，将被用作评估假设和改进方法的工作机器和试验台。对这些相互作用和控制自组装过程的材料结构参数的复杂合作效应的基本理解将旨在。将开发新的设计和合成方法来构建共轭聚合物和嵌段共聚物，并建立新制备材料的结构-性能关系的基础知识基础。这些发现不仅将推动基础科学，而且可以扩展到有机电子应用的广泛材料和分层纳米结构。

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYThis project is aimed at establishing an integrated education and research program that utilizes bottom-up self-assembly approaches borrowed from nature, to construct precisely controlled structures on the nanometer scale and produce organic solar cells with enhanced performance and stability. A basic understanding of the intricate cooperative effects of molecular interactions and material structural parameters that control the self-assembly processes of specially designed molecules will be aimed at. New designs and synthetic methodologies for constructing semiconducting polymers and block copolymers will be developed and a fundamental knowledge base on structure-property relationships of newly prepared materials will be established. These findings will not only advance basic sciences but can also be extended to a wide range of materials and hierarchical nanostructures for organic electronic applications. Students working on these projects will gain interdisciplinary knowledge and skills, which will benefit their future scientific careers. New courses emphasizing materials chemistry and energy research will be developed and refined over the years. An outreach program, designed to attract K-12 students in New Mexico, especially Hispanics and Native Americans, into sciences will be established. These historically underrepresented students will obtain hands-on experiences in chemistry and materials sciences by means of one-day field-trips to the UNM campus. Overall, the proposed activities will not only advance the basic sciences, but also foster the mission to train a diverse group of in skilled scientists who will make positive impacts on society's future.TECHNICAL SUMMARYNanostructuring organic polymers and organic/inorganic hybrid materials and control of blend morphologies at the molecular level have become the prerequisites for modern electronic devices. To achieve all-around high performance, multiple organic and inorganic entities, each designed for specific functions, are commonly incorporated into a single device. Current state-of-the-art approaches to morphology control in these multi-component systems typically involve physical blending and optimization via thermal/solvent annealing. Such trial-and-error approaches are, however, highly system dependent, lack controllability on the molecular level and generally lead to morphologies at only thermodynamically metastable states. Through the proposed research, a versatile toolbox employing supramolecular chemistry will be created that is capable of precisely nanostructuring multi-component organic/inorganic hybrid materials through cooperation of multiple orthogonal non-covalent interactions. Materials specifically designed for polymer solar cell applications, including organic/organometallic conjugated block copolymers possessing different bandgaps, quantum dots having complimentary absorption profiles and fullerene derivatives as electron acceptors, will be employed as the workhorses and test-beds for evaluating the hypothesis and refining the methodology. A basic understanding of the intricate cooperative effects of these interactions and the material structural parameters that control the self-assembly processes will be aimed at. New designs and synthetic methodologies for constructing conjugated polymers and block copolymers will be developed and a fundamental knowledge base on structure-property relationships of newly prepared materials will be established. These findings will not only advance basic science but also can be extended to a wide range of materials and hierarchical nanostructures for organic electronic applications.