LEAPS-MPS: Conformational Inversion in Heterotriangulenes for Ferroelectric Switching

非技术总结：新数字信息的产生和对现有数字信息的获取对社会的持续进步至关重要。云数据存储提供了对数字信息的全球访问，并允许便携式设备生成无需在本地存储的数据并与之交互；然而，云存储设施的负面影响包括能源效率低下、土地利用分配和资源管理。虽然全球信息共享是云存储策略的适当使用，但从根本上说，补偿有限的本地存储容量是一个挑战，可以通过增加数据存储材料的存储密度来解决。凭借leap - mps奖，研究小组研究了一类用于非易失性数字信息存储的新型碳基分子材料，相对于传统的铁电技术和领先的存储电容器技术，该材料有可能将比特数据的大小减少几个数量级。铁电是一种现象，通过这种现象，信息可以存储在材料的电子极化矢量中。这些材料的潜在用途将使一种技术成为可能，这种技术通过将信息编码成单个分子的三维形状，而单个分子可以通过电场的应用进行修改。作为leap - mps项目的一部分，阿默斯特学院的本科生将学习先进的材料合成和工程策略。此外，本研究鼓励讨论本地和远程数据存储结构的可持续性、公平性和可访问性，并激发了如何解决这些问题的重新构想。技术总结：长期以来，由于缺乏在室温或接近室温下工作的有机铁电系统，对实际信息存储应用的有机材料的研究一直受到阻碍。有机晶体中的铁电性通常是由响应外加电场的固态分子的集体旋转和/或位移引起的。然而，这种机制对晶体堆积的细节很敏感，这在硅上还不能可靠地预测。该项目得到了leap - mps奖的支持，旨在开发一种新型有机铁电体的基本机制，该有机铁电体利用碗形杂原子中心三角烯化合物（heterotriangulene）的构象反转进行铁电开关。研究人员研究了固态铁电开关是否与分子构象反转的能量学密切相关，而不是与晶体堆积的不可预测的微妙性密切相关，并随后通过分子设计原理研究了铁电性能的可调性。这项研究的结果为一类新的铁电体奠定了基础，这些铁电体具有接近数据存储单分子极限的潜力。这项研究是由一个多元化和跨学科的本科研究人员团队进行的，他们在有机和材料合成，x射线晶体学和设备制造方面接受过培训。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:The generation of new and access to existing digital information is critical to the continued advancement of society. Cloud data storage offers global access to digital information and allows portable devices to generate and interface with data that need not be stored locally; however, the negative impacts of Cloud storage facilities include energy inefficiency, land use allocation, and resource management. While global information sharing is an appropriate use of Cloud storage strategies, compensating for limited local storage capacity is, fundamentally, a challenge that can be addressed by increasing the storage density of data storage materials. With this LEAPS-MPS award, the research team investigates a new class of carbon-based molecular materials for non-volatile digital information storage with the potential to decrease the size of a bit of data by several orders of magnitude relative to traditional ferroelectric technologies and an order of magnitude relative to leading memory capacitor technologies. Ferroelectricity is a phenomenon by which information can be stored within the electronic polarization vector of a material. The potential use of this use of these materials would enable a technology that works by encoding information into the three-dimensional shape of a single molecule that can be modified with the application of an electric field. As part of this LEAPS-MPS project, undergraduate students at Amherst College learn advanced materials synthesis and engineering strategies. Additionally, this research encourages discussion of the sustainability, equity, and accessibility of local and remote data storage structures and inspires a reimagining of how these issues may be addressed.TECHNICAL SUMMARY:The investigation of organic materials for practical information storage applications has long been precluded by the lack of organic ferroelectric systems that operate at or near room temperature. Ferroelectricity in organic crystals generally arises from collective rotation and/or displacement of molecules in the solid-state in response to an applied electric field. However, such mechanisms are sensitive to the details of crystal packing, which cannot yet be reliably predicted in silico. This project, supported by a LEAPS-MPS award, seeks to develop fundamental mechanistic insight for a new class of organic ferroelectrics that take advantage of the conformational inversion of bowl-shaped heteroatom-centered triangulene compounds (heterotriangulenes) for ferroelectric switching. Researchers investigate whether ferroelectric switching in the solid state is strongly correlated with the energetics of molecular conformational inversion rather than unpredictable subtleties of crystal packing, and subsequently study the tunability of ferroelectric performance through molecular design principles. The results of this research establish the foundation for a new class of ferroelectrics with the potential to approach the single-molecule limit for data storage. This research is conducted by a diverse and cross-disciplinary team of undergraduate researchers who receive training in organic and materials syntheses, X-ray crystallography, and device fabrication.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.