Chiral Electronic Materials

在化学系高分子、超分子和纳米化学(MSN)计划的支持下，哥伦比亚大学的Colin Nuckolls教授和Xavier Roy教授将探索开发一类具有独特的电子和手性组合的高分子材料，并探索这种组合如何在功能材料和新技术应用中表现出来。该项目本质上是跨学科的，跨越化学、物理和材料科学的概念。它将最先进的设计和合成手性大分子PI系统与测试结构相结合，以研究它们作为自旋传输的过滤器和阀门的能力。大分子构建块的手性将被调整，所得到的结构将被组装在表面和结合处。这些大分子及其性质将被用于量子力学应用，如自旋电子学、自旋偏振光发射和自旋控制催化。在进行这一研究项目的过程中，将对研究生进行培训，并为未来多学科的科学职业做好准备。此外，还将开展协调努力，包括课程开发、本科生辅导和面向K-8学校的推广活动。此外，主要研究人员将继续开发科学演示和方案，通过他们的数字外联努力提高公众对化学的认识。该项目将探索如何动态和静态地调整一类设计的有机大分子中的手性，以创建有效的自旋过滤器和自旋阀。这些分子是由主要研究人员创造的一类不同寻常的可合成可调谐电子接受分子。该程序围绕两个螺旋π系统建立，即扭曲烯和螺旋。这些分子具有电子传输的管道，本质上是螺旋的，其中一些分子表现出已知的最大分子手性活动。这两类重要的螺旋π系统及其手性构成了该项目理解如何利用它们的手性来控制自旋选择性输运的基础。该团队将把这些设计的螺旋π系统与一套互补的、控制良好的电气和电化学实验平台结合起来，以量化分子的自旋过滤能力。为了实现这一结构-性质研究，分子将被集成到模型电子测试结构中，作为探索其自旋选择性传输特性的一种手段。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry (MSN) Program of the Division of Chemistry, Professors Colin Nuckolls and Xavier Roy of Columbia University will explore the development of a new class of macromolecular materials that exhibit a unique combination of electronic and chiral properties and explore how the combination can manifest itself in functional materials and new technological applications. The project is interdisciplinary in nature, spanning concepts in chemistry, physics, and materials science. It integrates state-of-the-art design and synthesis of chiral macromolecular pi-systems with test structures to study their ability to act as filters and valves for spin transport. The chirality of the macromolecular building blocks will be tuned and the resulting structures will be assembled on surfaces and in junctions. The macromolecules and their properties will be evaluated for quantum mechanical applications such as spintronics, spin-polarized light-emission, and spin-controlled catalysis. In the course of conducting this research project, graduate students will be trained and prepared for future multidisciplinary science careers. This will be complemented with a coordinated effort that spans curriculum development, mentoring of undergraduate students and outreach towards K-8 schools. In addition, the principal investigators will continue to develop science demonstrations and programs to increase public awareness of chemistry through their digital outreach efforts. The project will explore how chirality in a class of designer organic macromolecules can be tuned, dynamically and statically, to create effective spin filters and spin valves. The molecules are an unusual class of synthetically tunable electron-accepting molecules created by the principal investigators. The program is built around two helical π-systems, namely twistacenes and helicenes. These molecules have conduits for electron transport that are helical in nature and some of these molecules exhibit the largest molecular chiroptical activity known. These two important classes of helical π-systems and their chirality form the basis for the project to understand how their chirality can be used to control the spin-selective transport. The team will couple these designed helical π-systems with a set of complementary, well-controlled electrical and electrochemical experimental platforms to quantify the molecules’ spin filtering capabilities. To realize this structure-properties study, the molecules will be integrated into model electrical test structures as a means to probe their spin-selective transport properties.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.