Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Fabrication of ultraminiaturized devices and machinery is the ultimate goal of modern nanotechnology. To achieve this goal, the use of single molecules as basic functional units for various electronic/photonic devices has been envisioned as the most promising approach. This proposal is aimed at exploring carbon-rich organic molecules or macromolecules (oligomers, fullerene, and carbon nanotubes) and their applications as the building blocks for nanoscale electro/photoactive materials. These designed nanomaterials are expected to exhibit extraordinary and unprecedented physical and optical properties that are not easily attainable otherwise from conventional bulk materials. In the proposed work, a series of novel conjugated oligomers, i.e. large organic molecules possessing highly delocalized pi-electron density, will be targeted, with the molecular structures specifically tailored to have unique two-dimensional topologies. As such, complex pi-electronic interactions and compelling molecular properties will arise, enabling the electronic and photonic behavior to be manipulated or fine-tuned on the nanometer scale. Furthermore, these oligomeric/polymeric compounds will be hybridized with two important carbon nanomaterials, namely [60]fullerene and carbon nanotubes, through chemical functionalization methods. The resulting hybrid materials are anticipated to possess not only the combined features of each individual components, but some new molecular functions as a result of the intricate interplay of pi-electrons among those active moieties at the molecular level. In practical terms, these proposed nanomaterials may find appealing applications in our daily lives, for example, plastic solar cells, chemical and biological sensors, high-performance optical devices for computing and information storage, etc. Implementation of the proposed study will have a significant impact on both fundamental knowledge and technological applications of modern carbon nanomaterials.