This award to Prof. T. Don Tilley at the University of California at Berkeley is supported by the Advanced Materials and Processing Program in the Chemistry Division. The theme of the award is the metal mediated synthesis of conjugated polymers based on silicon, tin and germanium. A broad range of Group IV metal hydride chemistries will be explored. Fundamental mechanisms of dehydrocoupling of silicon hydrides via metal-mediated sigma metathesis will be investigated; new early transition metal catalysts for dehydrocoupling and olefin polymerizations will be probed; polystannanes, hyperbranched polystannanes and polysilane networks will be prepared and their electronic properties investigated; new polymers based on zirconocene catalyzed coupling ofdi-ynes and dihaloarenes will be synthesized and characterized. For each new polymer or oligomer prepared, photophysical and electrochemical studies will be employed to assess possible optical and electronic properties. New polymers containing metallic backbones transport electrons by a fundamentally different process than traditional conjugated carbon-based polymers and create new paradigms for unusual optical and electronic behaviour. This research provides new materials which will exhibit electrical conductivity, electroluminescence, photoconductivity and piezochromic properties and will have potential application in light emitting diodes, semiconductors and nonlinear optical devices.
