FUNCTION THROUGH CHIRALITY IN ORGANIC ELECTRONIC MATERIALS AND DEVICES

手性是基本粒子、分子甚至像人手这样的宏观物体的基本对称性。如果物体以一对不能重叠的“左撇子”或“右撇子”镜像的形式存在，那么它们就被定义为手性。重要的是，这两种形式通常不能通过它们的物理性质来区分：只有当一个手性对象与另一个手性对象相互作用时，手性手性才变得明显。就像用你的右手握住另一个人的右手(同手性)或左手(异手性)会导致不同的结果一样，一个手性分子与另一个手性相同或相反的手性分子(或物体)的相互作用也可能不同。长期以来，小分子手性为选择性化学合成和催化提供了一种具有智力挑战性的努力。可以说，大多数(有机)不对称合成研究背后的灵感来自与生物相关的分子；无论是复杂的手性天然产物还是具有药物活性的化合物。在研究中，与生物相关的小分子通常需要手性结构来选择性地与手性生物受体相互作用。由于这种相互作用最终控制下游功能，手性在生物学环境中的重要性是非常清楚的。相反，其他科学和技术领域通常不认为手性对功能重要。在有机电子器件领域，最常用的是一小部分非手性共轭有机小分子和聚合物材料。虽然这一领域的技术开发显然是一项成功的事业，但迫切需要进一步创新。我相信，手性材料的独特性质将使手性成为有机共轭小分子的核心设计标准，并在材料设计、器件制造和功能应用方面带来新的范式。我建议开发手性分子结构，其中共轭体系是手性的组成部分，并在一系列材料和设备环境中使用此类分子，这些材料和设备将利用手性来控制纳米级的组装和功能。

Chirality is a fundamental symmetry property of elemental particles, molecules or even macroscopic objects like human hands. Objects are defined as chiral if they exist as a pair of "left handed" or "right handed" mirror images that cannot be superimposed. Importantly, these two forms cannot generally be differentiated by their physical properties: the chiral handedness only becomes evident when one chiral object interacts with another chiral object. Like using your right hand to shake either the right hand (homochiral), or left hand (heterochiral) of another person will lead to different results, the interaction of a chiral molecule with another chiral molecule (or object) of the same or opposite handedness can differ. Small molecule chirality has long provided an intellectually challenging endeavour for selective chemical synthesis and catalysis. Arguably, the inspiration behind the majority of studies in (organic) asymmetric synthesis has been biologically-relevant molecules; be it complex chiral natural products or pharmaceutically active compounds. Nature has evolved with a single handedness (homochirality) and in research, biologically relevant small molecules often require chiral structures to interact selectively with a chiral biological receptor. Since such interactions ultimately control downstream function, the importance of chirality in a biological context is abundantly clear.Conversely, other areas of science and technology have generally not considered chirality to be important for function. In the area of organic electronic devices, a small range of non-chiral conjugated organic small molecules and polymeric materials are most frequently employed. While the technological development in this area has clearly been a successful enterprise, there is pressing need for further innovation. I believe that the unique properties of chiral materials will result in chirality becoming a central design criterion for organic conjugated small molecules and lead to new paradigms in material design, device fabrication and functional applications. I propose to exploit chiral molecular architectures where the conjugated system is an integral part of the chirality, and use such molecules in a range of materials and device contexts that will exploit chirality to control nanoscale assembly and function.