Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

This proposal focuses on the preparation of new photonic materials. The word photonic means materials that use light. Their properties are directly related to solid-state properties and morphology, as well as intermolecular interactions. The design of photonic modern photonic devices involves more and more the use of polymer, notably organic of conducting polymers. On the other hand, the area of coordination and organometallic polymers is currently expanding at a fast rate. Their preparation for potential use in photonic materials remains to be performed. In fact, this is still totally unexplored. This research program exhibits 5 themes (1- Photo-induced energy transfer through metal-metal bond, 2-antenna effect in rigid rod conjugated polymers, 3- new metal-metal bond-containing polymers, 4- electro-active reversible assembly, and 5- supramolecular chromophore allignment from rigid unidimensional polymers). Few polymers exhibiting M-M bond in the backbone exits, and with the appropriate fragments, it is possible to prepare linear conjugated conjugated polymers. Modified conducting linear polymers will be prepared by adding solar harvesting fragments in the chains in order to test whether the presence of M-M bond is an efficient device to conduct electricity or energy. This phenomenon is called antenna effect in plants and photo-bacteria, which possess more complex devices. In order to control the optical properties, such as luminescence, "molecular switches" will be designed using an electro-induced host-guest process controlled with a very small change in voltage. In the absence of electricity, the device is off (no luminescence), and inversely, the device is on. Finally, a new concept for the preparation of "custom made" 1-D coordination polymers based on auto-assembling of rigid fragments that can bind in a unique way, will be designed. This simple strategy will lead to polymers where branched fragments will be placed in a repetitive and spacially well-organized manner.