Triplet Photophysics in Donor-Acceptor and pi-Conjugated Systems

有了这个奖项，化学系的大分子，超分子和纳米化学计划支持德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校的Kirk尚泽教授研究光与有机和含金属的半导体分子和聚合物的相互作用，目的是了解它们吸收光能时发生的基本过程。 一个关键的目标是了解电子自旋对材料性质所起的作用。 电子自旋态是重要的，因为它涉及分子与光的相互作用，因为它决定了诸如发光二极管（LED）和太阳能电池等应用的效率。 铂、硒和碲等金属对电子自旋的影响也正在研究中。该项目由一个包括本科生和研究生的小组实施，重点是代表性不足的群体的参与。 与沙特阿拉伯阿卜杜拉国王科技大学（KAUST）的一个小组进行了国际合作。该项目预计将产生广泛的影响，因为有机半导体是这些研究的重点，正在用于开发用于柔性发光器件和显示器，太阳能电池，传感器和射频ID标签的塑料电子材料。 因此，在此资助下发展的基础科学可能对国家卫生、国防和安全部门的技术发展产生长期影响。该项目最初将涉及新型半导体有机、有机金属和聚合物材料的化学合成。其次，新材料的特性将通过各种技术来表征，包括测量其光吸收和光发射特性。 具体而言，脉冲激光技术将用于了解这些新的半导体材料在光吸收后形成的中间激发态的时间演化。 这些实验将在从皮秒到微秒的时间尺度上进行。 结果将解释新的或现有的物理化学模型，使这些中间体的电子自旋态特征的分配。 这应该允许定量结构-性质关系的发展，其将分子和聚合物结构与系统如何与光能相互作用联系起来。 计算化学将在特定情况下用于模拟材料的电子结构，这些信息将有助于解释实验结果。选择材料将用于原型器件应用，包括有机太阳能电池和场效应晶体管配置，目的是将物理化学信息与材料器件性能相关联。 该研究的结果有望提高对供体-受体共轭体系光电特性的理解，特别关注三重态分子激发态在此类体系中所起的作用。

With this award, the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry is supporting Professor Kirk Schanze at the University of Texas at San Antonio to study the interaction of light with organic and metal-containing semiconducting molecules and polymers with the objective of understanding the fundamental processes that occur when they absorb light energy. A key goal is to understand the role played by electron spin on the properties of the materials. Electron spin state is important as it relates to the interaction of molecules with light because it determines the efficiency in applications such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and in solar cells. The effect of metals such as platinum, selenium, and tellurium on the electron spin is also being investigated. The project is being carried out by a team including undergraduate and graduate students with emphasis on participation by underrepresented groups. An international collaboration is included with a group at the King Abdulla University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. The project is expected to have broad impact because the organic semiconductors that are the focus of these studies are being used to develop plastic electronic materials used in flexible light emitting devices and displays, solar cells, sensors and radio frequency ID tags. Thus, the basic science being developed under this grant may have long term implications in technology development for the national health, defense and security sectors.The project will initially involve the chemical synthesis of new semiconducting organic, organometallic and polymeric materials. Second, the properties of the new materials will be characterized by various techniques, including measurement of their light absorption and light emission characteristics. Specifically, pulsed laser techniques will used to understand the time evolution of the intermediate excited states that are formed upon light absorption by these new semiconducting materials. These experiments will be carried out on timescales ranging from picoseconds to microseconds. The results will be interpreted within new or existing physical chemical models, enabling the assignment of the electronic spin state characteristics of these intermediates. This should permit the development of quantitative structure-property relationships which relate the molecular and polymer structure to how the systems interact with light energy. Computational chemistry will be used in specific cases to model the electronic structure of the materials, and this information will aid in the interpretation of the experimental results. Select materials are to be used in prototype device applications, including organic solar cells and field-effect transistor configurations, with the objective of relating the physical chemical information to material device performance. The results of the study are expected to enhance understanding of the optoelectronic properties of donor-acceptor conjugated systems, with a particular focus on the role played by triplet molecular excited states in such systems.