CAREER: Controlled Polycondensation Techniques as a Route to Novel Semiconducting Polymer Architectures

有了这个奖项，化学系的大分子，超分子和纳米化学项目资助卡内基梅隆大学的Kevin Noonan教授开发有机导电聚合物合成的新方法。 聚合物是长链有机分子，存在于日常生活的许多方面，研究小组正在开发新的有机电子材料，这意味着它们是由碳基分子制成的，而不是更常用的无机材料，例如基于硅的材料。导电碳基（有机）分子为实现高效，负担得起和广泛可用的电子和光学器件提供了巨大的希望。 正在开发的精确合成需要催化剂设计的进步和对聚合物链生长的不同化学步骤如何发生的基本见解。这项工作预计将对有机电子学的科学和技术产生更广泛的科学影响，并将为本科生和研究生提供跨学科的研究经验。 正在进行的教育活动包括将金属基催化融入所需的本科实验室。 实验室开发的视频正在网上提供，以帮助其他大学采用。在这个项目中，努南教授正在开发新的方法来控制供体-受体结构单元的聚合。将电子接受芳族单元并入聚合物材料中已经导致有机太阳能电池器件的极大改进，但是由于聚合物批次的差异，这些系统的性能经常观察到变化。本研究的目的是利用控制缩聚方法来合成高官能度的芳香族结构单元。将这些单元结合到聚合物中的精确合成将需要金属配体设计的进步，对金属如何与生长的聚合物链相互作用的理解，以及对不同官能团（即，酮、酯、酰胺）可以改变链增长反应。 正在开发和探索的单体库，努力提高对催化剂转移缩聚反应的机械理解和合理设计新的受体系统服从这种控制聚合的方法。

With this award, the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry Program of the Division of Chemistry, is funding Professor Kevin Noonan of Carnegie Mellon University to develop new methods for the synthesis of organic conducting polymers. Polymers are long chain organic molecules and are found in many facets of everyday life, and the research team is developing new electronic materials that are organic, meaning they are made from carbon-based molecules rather than the more commonly used inorganic materials, such as those based on silicon. Electrically conducting carbon-based (organic) molecules hold enormous promise for realizing highly efficient, affordable, and broadly available electronic and optical devices. The precision synthesis being developed requires advances in catalyst design and a fundamental insight into how the different chemical steps of the polymer chain growth occur. This work is expected to have broader scientific impact on the science and technology of organic electronics, and will also provide an interdisciplinary research experience for both undergraduate and graduate students. The educational activities being pursued include the integration of metal-based catalysis into required undergraduate laboratories. Videos of the lab development are being made available online to aid in adoption at other universities. In this project, Professor Noonan is developing new methods for the controlled polymerization of donor-acceptor building blocks. The incorporation of electron-accepting aromatic units into polymer materials has led to great improvements in organic solar cell devices, but variability in performance is often observed with these systems due to differences in polymer batches. The aim of this research is to utilize controlled polycondensation methods to polymerize highly functional aromatic building blocks. Precision synthesis incorporating these units into polymers will require advances in metal-ligand design, an understanding of how metals interact with the growing polymer chain and, insight into how different functional groups (i.e., ketones, esters, amides) can alter the chain-growth reaction. A library of monomers is being developed and explored with efforts towards enhanced mechanistic understanding of catalyst-transfer polycondensation and rational design of new acceptor systems amenable to this controlled polymerization approach.