Interfacial Control through Adsorbate Design Offers Fundamental Insights and Practical Utility

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With the support of the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor T. Randall Lee from the University of Houston will undertake fundamental materials discovery studies based on novel synthetic strategies and materials characterization while evaluating the utility and performance of the resulting materials for use in a variety of technologies that require robust surfaces. These include approaches to anti-fouling coatings for biomedical implants, oil pipelines and marine-based structures, and nanoscale coatings for patterning and protecting electrodes and superconducting tapes, and advanced coatings for controlling wettability and preventing corrosion at the macroscale. Research activities will be closely integrated with educational and outreach efforts. Graduate students, undergraduate students, and high school students will work collaboratively on the projects to gain the training and expertise in areas relevant to emerging technological challenges facing the nation. Recruitment geared toward broadening the participation of women and underserved minorities will include hosting hands-on laboratory activities for students from local high schools having significant underserved minority populations through the University of Houston's teachHouston program. High school students with an interest in research from across the state will have the opportunity to engage in a summer research experience through the Welch Foundation Summer Scholars program.This research program will focus on four central thrusts: (1) the study of multi-dentate adsorbates possessing phase-incompatible or structurally dissimilar chemical compositions for generating stable films having homogeneously mixed "conflicted" compositions as potential nanoscale anti-fouling coatings; (2) the examination of multidentate thiol-based adsorbates that resist desorption as cyclic disulfides for functionalizing the planar faces of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides such as MoS2 to facilitate exfoliation and enable layer-by-layer fabrication of unique hybrid nanostructures for optical and electronic devices; (3) the development of selectively fluorinated adsorbates for generating nanoscale coatings having well-controlled compositions and conformations that permit studies of surfaces dipoles and their historically controversial impacts on interfacial properties; and (4) the custom design and study of adsorbates for generating thin-film interfaces that mimic polymer interfaces, but cannot undergo traditional surface reconstruction. All of this research may be regarded as use-inspired fundamental research on the molecular-level design, development and study of functional surface coatings.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.