Chemically-functionalized nanoscale materials: tailored polymer platforms for nanomaterials surfaces and interfaces

有了这个奖项，化学学部的大分子、超分子和纳米化学项目正在支持马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校的Todd Emrick教授，将最先进的化学元素和纳米科学结合起来，生产先进的结构，如电子设备，其目标是比目前市场上的更小、更快、更敏感、更高效、更可靠。例如，聚合物和无机纳米颗粒，曾经被认为是单独的主题，在这项工作中被混合成“混合结构”，每个成分相互作用，产生惊人的效果。Emrick教授的团队合成的聚合物（“软材料”）可以显著影响金属（即“硬材料”）表面的电子特性。软材料能够显著改变与之接触的材料的特性，这种能力对提高许多设备的效率有着深远的影响，包括比传统结构更有效地收集电荷和发电的太阳能电池。该项目还试图了解聚合物如何与二维材料中最新发展的结构相互作用，包括由超薄碳层、金属层和其他元素组成的结构。该项目包括寻求获得第一次实验室经验的本科生研究人员的参与，并涉及为初中和高中学生开发的“纳米日”讨论，旨在向下一代研究人员传达纳米尺度化学的兴奋。更具体地说，该项目致力于合成新的功能聚合物平台，用于集成到纳米级组件和混合材料结构中。所制备的聚合物用于金属和二维材料的表面功能化，包括：1)具有悬垂偶极子的聚合物，以及2)专门用于与二维纳米级结构相互作用的功能聚合物。固定在聚合物链上的偶极诱导基团包括两性离子取代基（亲水性偶极），初步结果描述了共轭聚合物两性离子对金属的影响，由于聚合物对高功函数金属电极的影响，生产出具有高功率转换效率（PCE）的聚合物太阳能电池。这些结果转化为功能化的二维纳米结构，如石墨烯和过渡金属二硫族化合物（TMDCs），最终寻求聚合物化学支持的设备增强。新合成的两性离子聚合物将通过比较具有两性离子悬垂基团的芳香族和脂肪族聚合物，来描述与聚合物骨架特征不同的两性离子悬垂基团对底物的影响。增强聚合物两性离子是一种富硫聚合物平台，旨在定制电子特性，并产生具有改进器件指标的新架构。

With this award, the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry is supporting Professor Todd Emrick of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to combine state-of-the-art elements of chemistry and nanoscale science to produce advanced structures, such as electronic devices, that aim to to be smaller, faster, more sensitive, more efficient, and more reliable than those on the market today. For example, polymers and inorganic nanoparticles, once considered separate topics, are blended in this work to make "hybrid structures", each component interacting with the other to produce striking effects. Professor Emrick's group synthesizes polymers ("soft materials") that markedly influence the surface electronic properties of metals (i.e., "hard materials") onto which they are coated. This ability of soft materials to dramatically change the properties of the materials they contact has profound implications for improving the efficiency of numerous devices, including solar cells that collect charge and generate power more efficiently than conventional structures. This project additionally seeks to understand how polymers interact with structures emerging from the latest developments in two-dimensional materials, including those composed of ultrathin layers of carbon, metals, and other elements. The project includes the participation of undergraduate researchers seeking to gain their first laboratory experience, and involves the development of "NanoDays" discussions for middle school and high school students, intended to convey the excitement of nanoscale chemistry to the next generation of researchers. More specifically, the project is engaged in the synthesis of new functional polymer platforms for integration into nanoscale assemblies and hybrid materials structures. The polymers of interest are prepared and used for surface functionalization of metals and 2-D materials, including: 1) polymers with pendent dipoles, and 2) functional polymers tailored for interactions with 2-D nanoscale structures. The dipole-inducing groups fixed pendent to the polymer chains include zwitterionic substituents (hydrophilic dipoles), with preliminary results describing the impact of conjugated polymer zwitterions on metals, producing polymer solar cells with high power conversion efficiency (PCE) due to the effect of the polymers on high work function metal electrodes. These results translate to functionalized 2-D nanostructures, such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), ultimately seeking polymer chemistry-enabled device enhancement. New synthetic zwitterionic polymers will delineate the effect of the pendent zwitterionic groups on underlying substrates, as distinct from polymer backbone characteristics, by comparing aromatic and aliphatic polymers having zwitterionic pendent groups. Augmenting the polymer zwitterions is a sulfur-rich polymer platform aimed to tailor electronic properties and result in novel architectures with improved device metrics.