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

非技术总结本项目旨在建立一个综合的教育和研究计划，利用从自然界借来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，并生产具有增强性能和稳定性的有机太阳能电池。 本课程的目标是对控制特殊设计分子自组装过程的分子相互作用和材料结构参数的复杂合作效应有一个基本的了解。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，并建立新制备材料的结构-性能关系的基础知识库。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各种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内开发和完善。将建立一个旨在吸引新墨西哥州K-12学生，特别是西班牙裔和美洲土著学生进入科学领域的推广计划。这些历史上代表性不足的学生将通过为期一天的实地考察UNM校园获得化学和材料科学方面的实践经验。总体而言，所提出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能的科学家的使命。技术概述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物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）集成到单个设备中。在这些多组分体系中进行形态控制的现有技术方法通常涉及通过热/溶剂退火的物理共混和优化。然而，这种试错法是高度系统依赖性的，缺乏分子水平上的可控性，并且通常导致仅处于介稳态的形态。 通过拟议的研究，将创建一个多功能的工具箱，采用超分子化学，是能够通过多个正交非共价相互作用的合作，精确的纳米结构化多组分有机/无机杂化材料。专门为聚合物太阳能电池应用而设计的材料，包括具有不同带隙的有机/有机金属共轭嵌段共聚物，具有互补吸收曲线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主力和试验台。这些相互作用和控制自组装过程的材料结构参数的复杂的合作效应的基本理解将是针对。将开发用于构建共轭聚合物和嵌段共聚物的新的设计和合成方法，并将建立新制备材料的结构-性能关系的基础知识库。这些发现不仅将推进基础科学，而且可以扩展到广泛的材料和有机电子应用的分级纳米结构。

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.