Molecular Approach to Conjugated Materials

理解光或电子与物质的相互作用仍然是科学的一个目标。对这些相互作用的基本理解将使高效、灵活的太阳能电池或通过有机发光二极管的照明应用成为可能。利用合成化学，我们努力探索有机分子的合成、光学和电化学性质。在实践中，我们设计了与光和电子相互作用的有机分子。大多数拟议的研究项目都致力于通过引入新的分子支架来实现有机合成，这对任何颠覆性技术的成功都至关重要，我们的每个目标都与造福加拿大人的应用相关联，例如食品供应、高效太阳能电池和照明、绘制疾病状态的生物成像工具或新的药物输送方法。我们的第一个目标是探索有机分子作为室温磷光，曾经被认为是不切实际的，因为氧猝灭。有机化合物通过光激发“带电”后会发光——想想孩子天花板上的星星贴纸——是罕见的，分子设计规则也不存在；我们建议填补这一知识空白。从根本上说，理解和调整激发态材料对有机led和太阳能电池的工作具有重要意义。我们的第二个目标是在阴离子传感器和生物成像两个应用方面取得重大进展。我们提出阴离子传感器，通过针对磷酸盐，硫酸盐和硝酸盐与特定阴离子相互作用时改变颜色，用于我们的传感器设计。这些阴离子在粮食供应中起着至关重要的作用，精确施肥策略被视为提高产量和限制富营养化的方法。花青素染料已被广泛用作生物成像标签来发现生物过程的作用。随着更复杂的生物过程被揭示，对多色发射标签的需求越来越大，我们的提案重新想象了这类染料的合成，增加了相当大的结构和颜色多样性。最后，我们提出了一系列具有弯曲形状的分子，以实现两个应用目标-药物输送和相分离。由于疏水效应，水和油在混合时相分离，我们认为形状不匹配的分子之间的相分离可以达到相同的结果。纳米尺度的相分离一直是有机材料界的理想目标，而这种方法可以成为实现这一目标的正交工具。我们的弯曲分子在受光激发时也经历了平面化。当两个弯曲的分子连接成一个大的循环，这样腔内就能容纳药物，在光激发下，分子形状的变化会排出药物。这是一种未经测试的药物传递机制，提供了许多基本的动力学研究。

Understanding the interaction of light or electrons with matter continues to be an aim in science. Fundamental understanding of these interactions would enable efficient, flexible solar cells or lighting applications through organic light emitting diodes. Using synthetic chemistry we strive to explore the synthesis, optical and electrochemical properties of organic molecules. In practice, we design organic molecules that interact with light and electrons. Most of the proposed research program is devoted to organic synthesis by bringing new molecular scaffolds, which is critical to success of any disruptive technology and each of our aims is tied to applications that will benefit Canadians, such as food supply, efficient solar cells and lighting, tools for bioimaging to map disease states, or new drug delivery methods. Our first aim explores organic molecules as room temperature phosphorescence, once believed to be impractical due to oxygen quenching. Organic compounds that glow after they have been `charged' via photoexcitation - think star stickers on a child's ceiling - are rare and molecular design rules are absent; we propose filling that knowledge void. Fundamentally, understanding and tuning the excited-state materials has significant implications in the operation of organic LEDs and solar cells. Our second aim proposes to make significant progress on two applications - anion sensors and bioimaging. We propose anion sensors that change colour when interacting with specific anions by targeting phosphates, sulfates and nitrates for our sensor design. These anions play critical roles in food supply and precision fertilization strategies are seen as a method to enhance production and limit eutrophication. Cyanine dyes have been used extensively as bioimaging tags to discover the action of biological processes. As more complex bioprocesseses are being revealed there is demand for mutil-coloured emission tags and our proposal re-imagines the syntheses of this dye class, adding considerable structural and colour diversity. Finally, we propose a series of molecules that have bent shapes to achieve two application goals - drug delivery and phase separation. Water and oil phase-separate when mixed because of hydrophobic effects and we suggest phase separation between shape mismatched molecules can achieve the same outcome. Phase segregation at the nanoscale has been an idealized target in the organic materials community and this approach could be an orthogonal tool to achieve this goal. Our bent-shape molecules also undergo planarization when excited by light. When two bent-shape molecules are linked into a large cycle, such that the cavity holds a drug, and upon light excitation a change in molecular shape expels the drug. This is an untested drug delivery mechanism that offers much fundamental dynamics investigation.