Professor Kevin Noonan from Carnegie Mellon University will present a seminar.

Designing Conjugated Polymers and Macrocycles, A Case Study with Furan

Abstract

In this talk, I will highlight some of our recent explorations into conjugated polymers and macrocycles which are of interest for organic electronic devices. I will focus on the benefits and opportunities which arise from using furan as a building block for conjugated materials since it is one of a few aromatics which can be derived directly from biomass. The talk will center around our efforts to impart additional environmental stability to polyfurans and how attaching electron-withdrawing side groups led to a specific change in the conformational properties of the polymer. Taking advantage of this information, we have been able to synthesize a new class of conjugated macrocycle, the cyclo[6]furan. In addition, the cross-coupling approaches to build up cyclo- and polyfurans will be discussed. If time permits, some of our work on anion exchange membranes and designing unusual main group cations for these materials will be presented

Host: Dr. Paul Rupar