In this Presidential Young Investigator award, modern synthetic organic and organometallic reactions will be used for the synthesis of new conjugated organic oligomers and polymers. The molecular architectures are planned so as to maximize the electronic (conducting) and photonic (nonlinear optical) properties of the final materials. For example, planar polyphenylene derivatives will be synthesized by metal-catalyzed cross coupling reactions. Reactive sites within each monomer unit will then unite to force the final target polymer into a planar conformation. This should minimize the electrical resistance in conductivity studies as well as minimize the photonic loss in third order nonlinear optical studies. Additional studies will involve the synthesis of chiral and optically active conjugated polymers that are asymmetric along their backbone due to restricted rotations around single bonds.
