With the support of the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program, Professor Ana de Bettencourt-Dias, of the Department of Chemistry at Syracuse University to study the efficiency of intersystem crossing of new ligands, which have a thiophene-carbazole-thiophene backbone, as a function of the conformation of the ligand and of the chelating group coordinated to the backbone. These ligands will be incorporated into lanthanide ion complexes and the stabilities and emission efficiencies of these complexes will be examined. The proposed ligands will serve as useful lanthanide ion sensitization probes and their respective complexes will be studied in terms of their photochemical and photophysical perperties. This project will show how the singlet and triplet states of the ligands depend on their chemical composition and conformation. The complexes will lead to new lanthanide-based emmitting materials with application in light-emitting diodes for flat panel displays. Undergraduate students involved in this project will gain research experience and learn several synthetic techniques in an area of chemistry that has practical applications in the field of color displays. Graduate students will acquire in-depth knowledge of coordination chemistry as well as the applications and research done in rare earth and materials chemistry. Finally, the above compounds may also be used as precursors for electroactive materials for hydrogen storage and spin valves, hole transport layers, catalysts and porous materials.
