Non-ambient Studies on Opto-electronic Materials

随着同步辐射光源的出现，有可能进行新类型的实验来探测材料的分子结构，这在以前是不可能的。新的英国同步加速器钻石现已投入使用，用于研究材料结构的新仪器将于2008年投入使用。在这项研究中，我们希望利用同步加速器带来的高强度辐射给我们带来的新机遇，研究在传感器和材料工业中有应用的两类光电材料的性质。我们还为学生提供使用钻石衍射仪的高质量培训。第一类光电材料是新型的有机金属聚合物，它们在加压或受光照射时会改变其结构和电子性质，因此可以用作传感器。我们希望探索它们的化学和性质，以便我们能够调整它们以特定的方式表现出来，通过研究它们在环境条件下、压力下以及在同步辐射的光照射下的结构将有助于我们实现这一目标。第二类光电材料是当单体分子在光活化下连接在一起形成二聚体或聚合物时在固体状态下产生的。我们希望探索当单体在高压下放置时，是否发生相同的连接过程，即[2 2]环加成反应。我们还希望制备能够在固态中进行环加成反应的新的有机金属配合物，并研究这些材料在光活化或加压下的行为。同样，同步辐射将被用来探测这些材料在反应时的结构。从实验室和基于同步辐射的两类材料实验中获得的信息将帮助我们建立这些系统的结构/性能关联，并将导致更有效的智能材料的设计。

With the advent of synchrotron radiation sources it is possible to undertake new types of experiment to probe the molecular structures of materials that have not been possible previously. The new UK synchrotron, diamond, is now coming into operation and new instrumentation to study the structure of materials will be operational in 2008. In this research we wish to take advantage of the new opportunities that the high intensity radiation that the synchrotron gives us and study the properties of two classes of opto-electronic materials that have applications in the sensor and materials industry. We also provide a student with high quality training in the use of diffraction facilities at diamond. The first class of opto-electronic materials are new organometallic polymers that change their structure and electronic properties when put under pressure or when irradiated with light so that they can be used as sensors. We wish to explore their chemistry and properties so that we can tune them to behave in a particular way and by studying their structures under ambient conditions, under pressure and under irradiation with light with synchrotron radiation will help us to achieve this goal.The second class of opto-electronic materials are generated in the solid state when monomer molecules link up under photoactivation to form dimers or polymers. We wish to explore whether the same linking process, a [2+2] cycloaddition reaction, occurs when the monomers are placed under high pressure. We also wish to prepare new organometallic complexes capable of undergoing cycloaddition reactions in the solid state and investigate how these material behave when photoactivated or placed under pressure. Again, synchrotron radiation will be used to probe the structures of these materials as they react.The information gained from laboratory and synchrotron-based experiments on both classes of materials will help us to build structure/property correlations for these systems and will lead to the design of more efficient intelligent materials.