Unconventional Liquid Crystals: Design, Synthesis, and Applications

该项目提出了液晶科学的新概念，具有基础和技术方面。它涉及复杂的有机合成，旨在生产扩展的低聚丙烯酸结构，以推动电子材料领域的发展。苯乙烯是一种电子活性材料，从这些板状材料中生产液晶有可能通过创造用于场效应晶体管（fet）的具有高载流子迁移率的有组织的无缺陷材料来推进有机电子学领域。在催化领域，新的基本原理将被提出，以证明超分子手性在产生对映选择性反应中是非常有效的。这种方法与传统的催化剂设计有很大的不同，传统的催化剂设计是在催化活性位点周围放置手性支架。多孔膜将在短期内用作支撑催化剂，并有可能作为连续工艺的膜。在许多情况下，连续工艺比批量工艺更有效，因此可以降低精细化学品的制造成本。液晶科学领域与几个非常重要的技术领域高度相关。这一科学技术领域最显著的成就是液晶显示器的发展，液晶显示器已成为我们日常生活的一部分。然而，平板显示器只代表了不同类型的液晶结构和应用的一小部分。本研究旨在扩大利用液晶的自组织特性来生产新型电子材料，用于形成晶体管和其他有趣的分子电子器件。通过设计自组织分子，可以开发出成本低廉且性能优异的新一代晶体管。液晶结构还将用于创造新型催化剂，用于更高效的连续生产新化学品的过程。这些类型的方法可以降低生产成本，并导致更环保的过程，需要更少的溶剂和产生更少的排放。这些材料的一个新颖之处在于，它们将涉及超分子（超越一个分子）结构的设计，以创造控制新化学键形成所需的相互作用。该项目由材料研究部和化学部共同资助。

This project addresses new concepts for liquid crystal science that have fundamental and technological facets. It involves complicated organic synthesis directed at producing extended oligo-acene structures to advance the field of electronic materials. Acenes are electronically active materials, and producing liquid crystals from these board-like materials has the potential to advance the field of organic electronics by creating organized defect free materials with high carrier mobilities for application in Field Effect Transistors (FETs). In the area of catalysis, new fundamental principles will be advanced to demonstrate that supramolecular chirality can be highly effective in producing enantioselective reactions. The approach is very different from conventional catalyst design that places chiral scaffolds about a catalytic active site. Porous films will be generated that can be used as supported catalysts in the near term and potentially as membranes for continuous processes. Continuous processes are in many cases more efficient than batch processes and can thereby lower the manufacturing costs of fine chemicals. %%%The area of liquid crystal science has high relevance to several very important areas of technology. The most evident accomplishment of this field of science and technology is the development of liquid crystal displays that have become part of our everyday life. However, flat screen displays represent only a small portion of the different types of liquid crystal structures and applications that are possible. This research seeks to expand the use of the self-organization properties of liquid crystals to produce novel electronic materials for the formation of transistors and other interesting molecular electronic devices. By designing self-organizing molecules new generations of transistors can be developed that are inexpensive to produce and have high performance. Liquid crystal structures will also be used to create new types of catalysts for use in more efficient continuous processes for the production of new chemicals. These types of methods can lower production costs and lead to more environmentally friendly processes that require less solvent and generate fewer emissions. A novel aspect of these materials is that they will involve the design of supramolecular (beyond one molecule) structures to create the needed interactions that will control the formation new chemical bonds. This project is co-funded by the Division of Materials Research and the Chemistry Division.