Controlling Molecular Organization in Materials

由碳分子组成的高级合成材料在现代生活中无处不在，对我们的健康至关重要。这些材料的性质不仅取决于单个分子成分的身份，还取决于它们在材料中的位置以及它们如何与邻近分子相互作用。因此，控制分子组织和相互作用是制造有效新材料的先决条件。然而，许多因素支配着集体分子行为，尽管经过了几十年的研究，其结果却很难预测。这对进步造成了重大障碍。为了帮助克服这些问题，我们将开展一项雄心勃勃的研究计划，以加深对分子组织和相互作用的理解。我们的目标是通过设计创造出有效的新材料。材料科学是一个多学科的领域，它使用了许多领域的工具和理解。在加拿大分子材料研究主席的支持下，Wuest集团开发了一个独特的研究和培训环境，将有机化学的核心专业知识与其他领域的强大技能相结合，包括无机化学，表面科学，物理化学，计算和工作装置的制造。总之，这些技能使我们能够设计和合成复杂的新分子，确定它们在3D（散装材料）和2D（沉积在表面）中的组织，测量关键特性，并测试它们在应用中的性能。我们将通过模块化构建来制作新材料，这是基于使用与相邻模块相互作用的分子模块，从而将它们放置在预定的位置。我们相信，这一策略将产生与金刚石和石墨相关的有价值的新有序固体，但具有以前在碳基材料中未观察到的特殊性能。此外，我们的工作有望提供指导方针，表明何时一个分子可以在其他有序结构中被另一个分子取代，这可能有助于展示如何控制结晶以产生新的固体形式，或者如何完全防止结晶产生非晶态材料。另一个目标是利用我们在模块化结构方面的技能来制造新的多孔分子固体，这种固体可以被氧化和可逆还原，从而可以制造碳基电池。提出的工作建立在Wuest小组先前研究的坚实基础上，并朝着具有挑战性的新方向前进。该计划的所有元素都与分子组织及其如何控制的潜在兴趣联系在一起。我们期望该项目继续产生基础科学进步，帮助加拿大在分子材料领域保持国际领先地位，为培训提供世界级的多学科环境，并让学员积极参与创造有用的新技术。

Advanced synthetic materials made up of molecules composed largely of carbon are ubiquitous in modern life and essential to our well-being. The properties of these materials depend not just on the identity of the individual molecular components, but also on how they are positioned in the materials and on how they interact with neighboring molecules. Controlling molecular organization and interactions is therefore a prerequisite for making effective new materials. Many factors govern collective molecular behavior, however, and the outcome is seldom predictable, despite decades of study. This creates major obstacles to progress. To help surmount them, we will undertake an ambitious program of research to deepen understanding of molecular organization and interactions. Our goal is to allow effective new materials to be created by design. Materials science is a multidisciplinary field that uses tools and understanding taken from many areas. With support from the Canada Research Chair in Molecular Materials, the Wuest group has developed a unique environment for research and training that combines a core of expertise in organic chemistry with strong skills in other areas, including inorganic chemistry, surface science, physical chemistry, computation, and the fabrication of working devices. Together, these skills let us design and synthesize complex new molecules, determine their organization in 3D (in bulk materials) and 2D (deposited on surfaces), measure key properties, and test their performance in applications. We will make new materials by modular construction, which is based on using molecular modules that interact with neighboring modules and thereby place them in predetermined positions. We are confident that this strategy will yield valuable new ordered solids related to diamond and graphite, but with special properties not previously observed in carbon-based materials. In addition, our work is expected to yield guidelines indicating when one molecule can be replaced by another in an otherwise ordered structure, which may help show how crystallization can be controlled to produce new solid forms or how it can prevented altogether to give amorphous materials. An additional objective is to use our skills in modular construction to make new porous molecular solids that can be oxidized and reduced reversibly, thereby allowing the creation of carbon-based batteries. The proposed work builds on a solid foundation of previous research in the Wuest group and moves in challenging new directions. All elements of the program are linked by an underlying interest in molecular organization and how it can be controlled. We expect the program to continue to yield fundamental scientific advances, help Canada maintain a position of international leadership in the field of molecular materials, offer a world-class multidisciplinary environment for training, and let trainees participate actively in the creation of useful new technology.