CAREER: Controlled Polycondensation Techniques as a Route to Novel Semiconducting Polymer Architectures

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

With this award, the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry Program of the Division of Chemistry, is funding Professor Kevin Noonan of Carnegie Mellon University to develop new methods for the synthesis of organic conducting polymers. Polymers are long chain organic molecules and are found in many facets of everyday life, and the research team is developing new electronic materials that are organic, meaning they are made from carbon-based molecules rather than the more commonly used inorganic materials, such as those based on silicon. Electrically conducting carbon-based (organic) molecules hold enormous promise for realizing highly efficient, affordable, and broadly available electronic and optical devices. The precision synthesis being developed requires advances in catalyst design and a fundamental insight into how the different chemical steps of the polymer chain growth occur. This work is expected to have broader scientific impact on the science and technology of organic electronics, and will also provide an interdisciplinary research experience for both undergraduate and graduate students. The educational activities being pursued include the integration of metal-based catalysis into required undergraduate laboratories. Videos of the lab development are being made available online to aid in adoption at other universities. In this project, Professor Noonan is developing new methods for the controlled polymerization of donor-acceptor building blocks. The incorporation of electron-accepting aromatic units into polymer materials has led to great improvements in organic solar cell devices, but variability in performance is often observed with these systems due to differences in polymer batches. The aim of this research is to utilize controlled polycondensation methods to polymerize highly functional aromatic building blocks. Precision synthesis incorporating these units into polymers will require advances in metal-ligand design, an understanding of how metals interact with the growing polymer chain and, insight into how different functional groups (i.e., ketones, esters, amides) can alter the chain-growth reaction. A library of monomers is being developed and explored with efforts towards enhanced mechanistic understanding of catalyst-transfer polycondensation and rational design of new acceptor systems amenable to this controlled polymerization approach.