Please join ND Energy for a distinguished lecture presented by Mark Chen, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at Lehigh University, and co-hosted by Subhash L. Shinde, associate director of ND Energy, and Matthew Webber, Keating-Crawford Collegiate Professor of Engineering in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Notre Dame. This virtual event is open to the general public. Please register for the Zoom link to attend. Questions regarding the event may be directed to Subhash L. Shinde. We look forward to you joining us!

Abstract

Open-shell molecules possess unpaired electron density (radical character), which makes them intriguing candidate materials for many optoelectronic applications. Air-stable structures have been reported, but most require lengthy synthetic sequences with limited generality. Our lab has developed a concise strategy for rapidly accessing a variety of bisphenalenyls from commercial starting materials. We used this method to synthesize a neutral biradicaloid, Ph₂-s-IDPL, and several novel heteroatom-substituted, π-radical cations. One such molecule is O-substituted (Ph₂-PCPL)(OTf), which displays electrostatically-enhanced, intermolecular covalent-bonding interactions that impart remarkable charge transport properties. Specifically, we have discovered soluble derivatives that, when mixed with polystyrenesulfonate (PSS), enable the formation of water-processable, n-type conductive organic films that demonstrate high optical transparency (>94% transmission), electrical conductivity (σ_rt < 117 S/cm), and electron mobility (μ_e < 322 cm² V^-1 s^-1). In these composites, PSS not only serves as a counterion, but also promotes n-doping and solution-phase aggregation, which leads to molecular ordering in solid-state. We have also discovered a N-substituted, red emissive, π-radical cation [(Ph₂-PQPL)(OTf)] that is structurally distinct from all other luminescent radicals, and achieves rare antiambipolar charge transport in field-effect transistors. N-substituted bisphenalenyls also display self-sensitized and reversible reactivity with dioxygen that shows potential for use in colorimetric oxygen sensors and for on-demand singlet oxygen release.

Biography

Mark Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Lehigh University. He received his B.A. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University with M.-Christina White developing catalytic C-H bond oxidation methodologies. As a Dreyfus postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Jean Fréchet at U. C. Berkeley, he led a team developing polymeric and molecular materials for organic electronic devices. Since coming to Lehigh University, the Chen Lab has investigated the synthesis of open-shell organic molecules and their application to optoelectronic materials and devices. Mark is the recipient of several awards, including a Kaufman Foundation New Investigator Award (2015) and NSF CAREER Award (2021).

Sponsored by the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and ND Energy

Downloads
Mark Chen Flyer

Originally published at energy.nd.edu.