Chemically Functionalized Nanoscale Materials: Building Functional Polymers for Nanoscale Materials and Interfaces

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Semiconductor nanostructures can be created from many different types of materials. They also come in many different shapes and sizes, with dimensions that can be 100,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper. The unique properties of these extremely tiny crystals have growing impact in the emerging science and technology of wearable sensors, flexible electronics, solar cells, and personalized medicine. However, finding ways to combine these different structures into electronically active materials remains an important challenge. With support from the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Todd Emrick and his students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are creating synthetic polymers that link nanostructures together, enabling easy transport of charges between them. Their discoveries could lead to more efficient devices, ranging from flexible, mobile solar cells to faster performing, lighter weight electronics. The project provides education and training to a diverse population of researchers, including graduate students engaged in Ph.D. research, undergraduates gaining their first research experiences, and high school students participating in an apprenticeship program that will increase opportunities for young researchers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields.The project is investigating new approaches to synthesizing polymers containing functionality that enhances the electronic activity of the materials they contact, focusing especially on zwitterionic and charged groups. These polymers are investigated as coatings (from 5 to 100 nm thickness) on electronically active substrates, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) nanostructures, and as ligands on perovskite nanoparticles, facilitating interfacial contact and improving the lifetime and stability of electronic contact. By emphasizing conjugated polymer zwitterions (CPZs) and metal-free polymerization methods, this study is preparing materials with chemistry that is ideally suited for integration into well-defined ultrathin interfacial layers and robust multilayer structures. These synthetic polymer chemistry designs are producing new knowledge in structure-property relationships involving soft materials, including the effect of the position and orientation of the charged moieties within CPZs that dictate their interfacial contact.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.