CAREER: Molecular Tools to Tune the Structure-Function Properties of Nanoscale Objects by Reconfiguration of pi-Conjugated Superstructures

迈阿密大学的Jean-Hubert Olivier研究小组寻求开发新的策略来操纵纳米级结构（尺寸为1/1，000，000米）中有机分子和聚合物的相互作用。 总体目标是了解如何精确控制组装途径，以重新配置有机材料的结构并促进有效的能量传输。这项基础研究的结果对太阳能电池设计和光电器件具有重要意义。 该项目还促进了培训平台的发展，使学生能够应对社会挑战和复杂的科学问题。为了实现这些目标，Olivier集团开发了一个科学发现计划：“创造和组装：自然如何建造“东西””。该计划旨在激发年轻一代对科学和技术的好奇心，创造一个促进批判性思维的环境，激励所有年龄段的学生追求科学事业，并使更成熟的观众敏感到科学和教育可以为更可持续的未来做出巨大贡献的程度。和纳米化学计划的NSF化学部，该项目开发了一套新的工具，导航聚集自由能景观，并创建充满活力的捕获架构配备了结构功能性能无法达到平衡。Olivier小组试图建立规则和原则来操纵π共轭结构单元的电子结构，并形成非平衡态（n掺杂），以调节超结构前体之间的非共价相互作用。从溶液相的研究，利用光谱学和电化学，这个项目旨在了解如何重新配置的超结构促进激子离域和运输。此外，正在开发的战略，以“锁定”超分子结构在平衡，并放置在平衡外（n掺杂）。以这种方式创建的定义明确的纳米级物体揭示了对电子扰动的非平衡态所强制执行的电子特性的新理解。规则和原则阐明，使，在固/液界面，从积极捕获superstructures.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用该基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持，层次纳米结构的形成。

The research group of Jean-Hubert Olivier at The University of Miami seeks to develop new strategies to manipulate the interactions of organic molecules and polymers in nanoscale architectures (with dimensions of 1/1,000,000 meter). The overarching goal is to understand how one can precisely control assembly pathways to reconfigure the structure of organic materials and promote efficient energy transport. The results of this fundamental research have implications in solar cell design and optoelectronic devices. This project also nurtures the development of training platforms to prepare students to tackle social challenges and complex scientific problems. To achieve these goals, the Olivier group develops a Science Discovery Program: “Create and Assemble: How Nature Builds “Stuff””. The program seeks to ignite a curiosity for science and technology in younger generations, creates an environment that promotes critical thinking, motivates students across all age groups to pursue scientific careers, and sensitizes a more mature audience to the extent to which science and education can greatly contribute to a more sustainable future.With the support of the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry Program of the NSF Division of Chemistry, this project develops a new set of tools to navigate the aggregation free-energy landscape and create energetically trapped architectures equipped with structure-function properties unattainable at equilibrium. The Olivier groups seeks to establish rules and principles to manipulate the electronic structures of π-conjugated building blocks and form out-of-equilibrium states (n-doped) to tune the non-covalent interactions between superstructure precursors. From solution-phase studies that exploit spectroscopy and electrochemistry, this project seeks to understand how reconfigured superstructures promote exciton delocalization and transport. Furthermore, strategies are being developed to “lock-in” supramolecular architectures both at equilibrium, and when placed out-of-equilibrium (n-doped). Well-defined nanoscale objects created in this manner unearth a new understanding of the electronic properties enforced by electronically perturbed out-of-equilibrium states. Rules and principles are elucidated to enable, at the solid/liquid interface, the formation of hierarchical nanostructures derived from energetically trapped superstructures.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.