Ladder-Type Heteroacenes-New Classes of Electro-Optic Materials

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With this award, the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry (MSN) Program is supporting Professor Luping Yu at the University of Chicago to develop a series of new compounds with laddered structures connected via fused rings. These semiconductor compounds may find uses in electronic and optic applications ranging from solar cells to molecular electronic components. The research involves development of new synthetic approaches, structural characterization, and physical measurements and enriches our understanding of the chemistry and physics of semiconducting organic materials and of organic/polymer chemistry. This interdisciplinary project integrates chemistry, material science and computation to generate new research directions and synthetic strategies for a new class of compounds. Students and postdoctoral associates receive interdisciplinary training and learn the skills necessary to face future scientific challenges. Underrepresented minority students are recruited and encouraged to pursue scientific careers.The goal of this project is to develop a series of new ladder conjugated oligomers based on thienobenzothiophene and its analogs. The synthetic approach is a versatile route to preparing a series of well-defined ladder oligomers which are a new class of semiconducting molecules for various electro-optic applications ranging from photovoltaic solar cells to molecular electronics. Several research efforts are undertaken including: synthesis of new ladder oligomers with different electronic and structural features, structural characterization, syntheses of block copolymers for supramolecular assembly, and exploration of the electro-optic properties of these new systems. Conjugated ladder oligomers have not been fully investigated due to the lack of a feasible synthetic approach to soluble molecules. A new class of "perfect" ladder oligomers obtained from this project may be soluble, allowing detailed characterization both in solution and in the solid state. The knowledge gained from these studies may enrich understanding of structure-property relationships of conjugated systems.