NSF Award
2401869
The research group of Jean-Hubert Olivier at The University of Miami seeks to develop new strategies to manipulate the interactions of organic molecules and polymers in nanoscale architectures (with dimensions of 1/1,000,000 meter). The overarching goal is to understand how one can precisely control assembly pathways to reconfigure the structure of organic materials and promote efficient energy transport. The results of this fundamental research have implications in solar cell design and optoelectronic devices. This project also nurtures the development of training platforms to prepare students to tackle social challenges and complex scientific problems. To achieve these goals, the Olivier group develops a Science Discovery Program: “Create and Assemble: How Nature Builds “Stuff””. The program seeks to ignite a curiosity for science and technology in younger generations, creates an environment that promotes critical thinking, motivates students across all age groups to pursue scientific careers, and sensitizes a more mature audience to the extent to which science and education can greatly contribute to a more sustainable future.<br/><br/>With the support of the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry Program of the NSF Division of Chemistry, this project develops a new set of tools to navigate the aggregation free-energy landscape and create energetically trapped architectures equipped with structure-function properties unattainable at equilibrium. The Olivier groups seeks to establish rules and principles to manipulate the electronic structures of π-conjugated building blocks and form out-of-equilibrium states (n-doped) to tune the non-covalent interactions between superstructure precursors. From solution-phase studies that exploit spectroscopy and electrochemistry, this project seeks to understand how reconfigured superstructures promote exciton delocalization and transport. Furthermore, strategies are being developed to “lock-in” supramolecular architectures both at equilibrium, and when placed out-of-equilibrium (n-doped). Well-defined nanoscale objects created in this manner unearth a new understanding of the electronic properties enforced by electronically perturbed out-of-equilibrium states. Rules and principles are elucidated to enable, at the solid/liquid interface, the formation of hierarchical nanostructures derived from energetically trapped superstructures.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
