Synthesis of Polymer Hybrids Featuring Nanoscopic Transition Metal Clusters as Building Blocks

该奖项在无机、生物无机和有机金属化学项目中获得，支持亚利桑那大学郑志平教授开发以过渡金属硫族化物簇为纳米级构建块的聚合物杂化材料。结构改变明确的簇状异构体将用作单体和可控自由基聚合的引发剂，作为与共轭有机单体偶联的试剂，或用作配体交换反应中用于所需聚合物/树突配体的不稳定起始材料。通过使用这些设计的簇状异构体，可以设想具有独特和可调的分子组成、结构和性能的簇状聚合物杂化物。本研究解决了一些基本问题，如簇构建块的结构和功能，以及聚合物组分的结构和功能，如何影响所产生的杂化物的性质。这项研究将涉及研究生、本科生和高中生，并包括性别、种族和地理上的少数群体。这些材料可能的实际应用是在有机发光器件，光伏和生物医学成像。

This award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program supports Professor Zhiping Zheng at the University of Arizona to develop polymer hybrid materials featuring transition metal chalcogenide clusters as nanoscopic building blocks. Structurally altered well-defined cluster isomers will be used as monomers and initiators for controlled radical polymerization, as reagents for coupling with conjugated organic monomers, or as labile starting materials used in ligand exchange reactions for desired polymeric/dendritic ligands. Through the use of these designed cluster isomers, cluster-polymer hybrids with distinct and tunable molecular composition, structure, and properties are envisioned. This research addresses fundamental questions as to how the structures and functions of the cluster building blocks, together with those of the polymeric components, affect the properties of the resulting hybrids. This research will involve graduate students, undergraduates, and high school students, and include gender, ethnic, and geographic minorities. The possible practical applications of these materials are in organic light-emitting devices, photovoltaics, and biomedical imaging.