Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

The research program for which the inert-atmosphere glove box is required aims to develop new polymer synthetic chemistry that can provide access to new advanced macromolecules and nanomaterials with well-defined architectures, an emerging field in chemistry which promises discovery, innovation and tremendous growth. We are particularly interested in the design, synthesis, and development of new complex polymers and nanomaterials as they have the potential to exhibit interesting properties and advanced functions. Proposed work includes the development of new chiral, metal-containing and pH-responsive polymeric materials, which have potential applications in chiral resolution, catalysis, organic light emitting diodes, solar cells, and programmed drug delivery. Although these are expected to be stable materials, their syntheses involve reagents and reaction intermediates that are highly reactive toward trace amount of oxygen and moisture. It is therefore vital that these experiments be conducted under ultra pure inert atmosphere in a glove box. The well-defined structures of the macromolecules and nanomaterials thus generated will allow fundamental studies of polymer structure-property relationships, and therefore provide the basis for the future rational design, synthesis and molecular engineering of polymers and nanomaterials with desired properties and functions. It is anticipated that the proposed research will help lay foundation for nanomaterials science and technology, the future advances of which will depend, to a large extent, on the effective control of chemical structures on the molecular level.