This interdisciplinary award to Ya-Ping Sun at Clemson University is supported by the Advanced Materials Program in the Chemistry Division and the Solid-State Chemistry Program in the Division of Materials Research. The focus of the research is the design and synthesis of fullerene materials and polymers with nonlinear optical properties. The photophysical and absorptive properties of mono- and polyfunctionalized C60 derivatives, and polymers with pendant fullerene groups will be investigated, directed towards developing intramolecular triplet energy donor-acceptor dyads as strong nonlinear absorbers. Specifically, dyads employing (60)-fullerene, porphyrins, and metallophthalocyanines as the donors and beta-carotene, diphenylhexadecaoctaenes and their derivatives as acceptors will be prepared and evaluated. Optical limiting will be the primary application investigated for the polymeric fullerene materials. This research will advance the development of materials for optical, electro-optical, acousto-optical and optomechanical devices for applications such as optical limiting, storage, and switching and will increase our understanding of the chemistry and photophysics of fullerene materials and polymers.
