pi-functional organic materials for molecular and nanoelectronics

各种迹象表明，电子有机材料将成为许多高科技应用的首选材料，包括显示器、太阳能电池、存储器、传感器等。因此，我们理解和设计电子功能的能力对未来能源、通信甚至医疗和安全技术的发展至关重要。这些特殊的电子性质大多是在某些有机分子（pi功能材料）的高度离域pi-电子体系中实现的。我们的研究计划是开发新的pi功能材料的合成和自组装的新方法，以便在分子和超分子水平（即块状固体）上控制电子特性。在三个不同的水平上进行研究-单分子，分子膜和共轭聚合物，我们寻求对电子共轭和分子间相互作用如何控制电荷通过分子的传输的一般理解，以及如何应用这些特性来构建功能性有机/分子器件。该研究项目的结构包括当前技术中适用的材料的合成和研究（分子半导体和薄膜晶体管的共轭聚合物），以及那些在更遥远的未来有潜在应用的新概念（例如，具有多端电输入/输出的功能分子器件）。由于易于光和空气促进的有机物降解是限制其在光电子学中广泛应用的主要因素之一，我们将特别关注材料的稳定性；我们合成的一些半导体分子在高达400摄氏度的空气中是稳定的。我们期望完成所建议的研究将显著影响我们在有机化学，固体物理和电子学界面的知识，并产生对光电技术具有实际重要性的材料。

Electronic organic materials have all indications of becoming the materials of choice for a number of high-tech applications, including displays, solar cells, memories, sensors, etc. Therefore, our ability to understand and to design the electronic function is of paramount importance for development of future energy, communications and even medical and security technologies. Most of these special electronic properties are enabled highly delocalized pi-electron system in certain classes of organic molecules (pi-functional materials). Our research program is set to develop new approaches to synthesis and self-assembly of the new pi-functional materials, in order to control the electronic properties, both at the molecular and supramolecular level (i.e. in bulk solids). Performing the studies at three different levels - single molecules, molecular films and conjugated polymers, we look for a generalized understanding of how electronic conjugation and intermolecular interactions control the transport of electrical charge through the molecules, and how to apply these properties to build functional organic/molecular devices. The research program is structured such as to involve the synthesis and studies of materials applicable in current technologies (molecular semiconductors and conjugated polymers for thin film transistors) as well as those developing new concepts with potential applications in more distant future (eg, funcitonal molecular devices with multitermini electrical input/output). Since facile photo- and air-promoted degradation of organics is one of the major factors limiting their wide application in optoelectronics, we will pay a particular attention to stability of our materials; some of semiconducting molecules that we synthesize are stable in air up to almost 400oC. We expect that performing the suggested research will significantly impact our knowledge at the interface of organic chemistry, solid state physics and electronics, and yield the materials of practical importance for the optoelectronic technologies.