The Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program supports Professor Bradley Holliday of the University of Texas at Austin for the synthesis, characterization and reactivity of hybrid materials that incorporate luminescent metal complexes into polymer backbones. A cooperative relationship is obtained from the conductive polymers, which can readily shuttle charge, and the luminescent metal complexes, which offer the advantages of sharp emission properties (lanthanides), synthetic color tuning (iridium and platinum materials), and higher potential efficiencies. Dr. Holliday is involved in a research-based outreach program to local high school teachers and their students that allows both groups to participate in summer research. This outreach program also allows the participating teachers to have open access to synthetic equipment which can be borrowed and taken to their respective schools for use. This outreach activity leverages previous NSF funding in the Undergraduate Research Collaboratives (URC) Program by establishing a new Freshman Research Initiative research stream and supporting cyber-enabled instrument usage.
