Organic Molecular Magnetic Materials

智力上的优点。在现有技术中，磁性材料价值数十亿美元。基于化学结构的新材料设计为新的、有用的电子行为类型提供了很大的希望。PI建议制造带有连接的官能团的分子，这些官能团具有特定的磁性和/或导电性。稳定的有机自由基将被合成，有望自组装，例如，通过使用强定向氢键。这些有机纯固体、混合固体和混合体系(含自由基的聚合物)将被测试磁性行为和一些电流的导电性。最重要的科学目标是：(1)找到良好的合成和提纯方法，以获得稳定的、具有潜在有用的磁电性能的材料；以及(2)发现将分子结构和晶体堆积与磁性和/或导电性能联系起来的新关系。更广泛的影响。该项目的研究生将受益于国际间的专业知识交流和合作关系，特别是与巴西和日本科学家的合作。培训将是高度跨学科的，包括制造分子的方法，确定它们如何组装成固体包装图案，以及将图案与磁性或导电行为相关联。在现代技术科学市场中，跨学科培训至关重要，在这个市场上，项目的时间很短，工人必须具有适应能力和多才多艺。沟通技巧将通过频繁的小组报告以及在国家、地区和/或地方会议上的报告来强调。近年来，这个群体的女性人数超过了男性，这与20年前的情况相反。这使得这个小组成为吸引其他女性加入一个进行大量有机合成和以数学为导向的物理化学的小组的“磁铁”。例如，2006年在拉赫提集团完成的五个博士学位中，有四个是女性获得的。最近入学的女性潜在研究生对这项工作的兴趣依然浓厚。拟议的工作还将与吸引美国马萨诸塞州大学阿默斯特分校领导的东北研究生教育和教授联盟(NEAGEP)的学生的努力联系在一起，NEAGEP是美国国家科学基金会支持的一个项目，旨在资助代表不足的少数群体在我们的校园从事研究生科学职业(http://www.neagep.org).拉赫蒂博士和他的团队一直是校园接待和招募考虑NEAGEP的来访学生的一部分。该项目将成为材料科学领域招收来自少数族裔背景的研究生候选人的重要资源。

Intellectural Merits. Magnetic materials are worth billions in existing technologies. Chemical structure-based designs of new materials have much promise for new, useful types of electronic behavior. The PI proposes to make molecules with attached functional groups, which give specific magnetic and/or conductive properties. Stable organic radicals will be synthesized that are expected to self-assemble, for example, by using strongly directional hydrogen bonds. These organic pure solids, mixed solids, and hybrid systems (polymers containing radicals) will be tested for magnetic behavior and some for conductivity of electrical current as well. The most important scientific goals are: (1) to find good synthetic and purification methods to give materials that are stable and have potentially useful magneto-electronic properties; and (2) to discover new relationships linking molecular structure and crystal packing to magnetic and/or conductive properties. Broader Impacts. Graduate students in this project will benefit from international exchange of expertise and collaborative ties, in particular with scientists from Brazil and Japan. Training will be highly interdisciplinary, including ways to make molecules, to determine how they assemble into solid packing patterns, and to correlate the patterns with magnetic or conductive behavior. Interdisciplinary training is vital in the modern techno-scientific marketplace, where projects have short timelines and workers must be adaptable and multi-talented. Communication skills will be emphasized by frequent group presentations, as well as presentations at national, regional, and/or local meetings. The group has in recent years had more women than men, a reversal of the situation from 20 years ago. This made the group a "magnet" for other women to feel comfortable in joining a group that does much organic synthesis and math-oriented physical chemistry. For example, four of five Ph.D. degrees completed during 2006 in the Lahti group went to women. Interest in the work by female potential graduate students in recent entering classes has remained strong. The proposed work will also be linked to efforts to attract students from the UMass-Amherst-led Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NEAGEP), an NSF-supported program that funds under-represented minority groups to pursue graduate scientific careers on our campus (http://www.neagep.org). Dr. Lahti and his group have been part of on-campus hospitability and recruiting of visiting students who are considering NEAGEP. This program will be an important resource for recruiting graduate student candidates from under-represented minority backgrounds into the field of materials science.