This award is made by the Office of Special Projects in the Chemistry Division under the Materials Synthesis and Processing Initiative. This research will focus on the synthesis of organic-inorganic designer solids, specifically thin films fabricated in a layer-by-layer fashion with two-dimensional periodicity parallel to the surface and total control of the composition in the perpendicular direction. The parallel sheets will be hexagonal lattices formed by polymerization of organometallic sandwich complexes, while the vertical pillars will be carborane-based rods containing a central dipolar chromophore parallel to the hexagonal sheets and capable of rotating about the pillar axis in the presence of an external electric field. The length of the rigid carborane rods will be varied to provide variable spacing between the parallel sheets and a novel interfacial technique will be used to build up the thickness of the thin films. %%% The synthetic methodolgy developed by this research will provide the basis for designing layered films with broad potential across several materials application areas. Electronic and photonic materials, for example, wave guides, are envisioned.
