New Frontiers in Synthesis of Main Group Systems with Novel Photophysical Properties

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The United States is in need of more economical means to manufacture highly efficient lighting and displays. Methods that can rely upon inexpensive and abundant elements and ones that minimize the formation of wasteful and toxic byproducts are especially attractive. To meet this need the Synthesis Program of the Chemistry Division of the National Science Foundation supports the research of Professor John D. Protasiewicz of the Case Western Reserve University into the preparation of low cost/lightweight/processable plastics and materials related to light emitting technology. Examples, include polymers, molecular electronics, light emitting diodes, photovoltaics, and flexible electronics. The students and postdocs trained and educated as part of this research program are needed as part of the country's highly skilled workforce in industry and education. In addition to the technical broader impacts related to advanced manufaturing, Professor Protasiewicz co-organizes and runs special orientation programs directed at raising awareness of mental health issues among graduate students and faculty. Main group systems with novel reactivity and bonding modes are examined to advance and create new paradigms in photophysical chemistry. Building on recently developed multiply-bonded organophosphorus chemistry dynamic carbene chemistry, electropolymerization, and fluorescence turn-on chemosensors are explored. Isolable carbenes are examined as control elements in dynamic photochemical systems. Luminescent and functional derivatives of 1,3-benzoxaphopsholes (BOPs) and 1,3-benzazaphopsholes (BAPs) are examined to create P,O- and P,N-chelated complexes to serve as robust functional materials for light emitting diode applications. New routes to materials containing photoactive BOPs and BAPs are developed, as well as new types of electropolymerization reactions to produce materials with electrochromism. The Professor Protasiewicz co-organizes and runs special orientation programs directed at raising awareness of mental health issues among graduate students and faculty.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.