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Supramolecular chemistry; auto-assembly; columnar stacks; liquid crystals; fluorous effect; one-dimensional supramolecular organic conductors; polycondensed aromatic compounds; charge carrier mobility; solubilising perfluorinated side chains; supermolecular assemblies; proton transport capacity; stacking

English title	Functional Supramolecular Polymers
Applicant	Jenny Titus
Number	119914
Funding scheme	Project funding (Div. I-III)
Research institution	Département de Chimie Université de Fribourg
Institution of higher education	University of Fribourg - FR
Main discipline	Organic Chemistry
Start/End	01.06.2008 - 31.05.2010
Approved amount	164'278.00

Lead

Lay summary
Based on the pioneering work of Müllen et al. and own discoveries in the field of ‘one-dimensional supramolecular organic conductors’ this research will be continued and extended. The concept relies on the extensive ∏-∏ stacking of polycondensed aromatic compounds, which exhibit extensive one dimensional long range ordering and pronounced charge carrier mobility perpendicular to the molecular plane along the stack.These molecules will carry at their periphery solubilising side chains, which at the same time should reinforce the ∏-∏-stacking property of the core structure by designed sterical match. In addition a tuned ratio of aliphatic and perfluorinated sections or functionality in these side chains will bestow the supermolecular assemblies with tailored properties, i.e. greatly reduced lateral interaction tendency between supramolecular structures or proton transport capacity.Existing interference between side chains and the ∏-∏ stacking of the core structures will be reduced by the development of new core structure shapes. Considerable synthetic effort will go in this section of the project, which could lead to a major breakthrough in the design of one-dimensional conductors.The continuation of the work in the field of amorphous hole transporting molecules is important, since the so far obtained structures, which perfectly match all mechanical criterions for such materials, fail in an OLED testing setup. The proposed research should therefore lead to a change of the electronic properties of the material without affecting the excellent mechanical properties.A most important potential of all these auto-assembled supra-molecular structures lies in their self-healing capacity: unlike regular (conducting or functional) polymers which are damaged irreversibly by current- or oxidation-induced reactions, supra-molecular self-organized assemblies possess the inherent capacity of disassembling and reassembling, allowing thereby for expelling altered or degraded molecules, and hence auto-repair of the supra-molecular structures during reassembling.Supra-molecular structures with one-dimensional charge carrier mobility and/or additional functionality will therefore have a very wide potential of industrial applications including, e.g. low cost field emission flat panel displays, field effect transistors, new materials for diode junctions, or even Nafion type membranes.

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Last update: 21.02.2013