Organic and inorganic/organic hybrid material development is essential for the advancement of electronic devices, such as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) and fuel cells. These materials are superior to their inorganic counterparts due to the ability to create flexible devices that can be produced on a large scale and at relatively low cost. First, electron-transport materials (n-type semiconductors) are severely lacking for the development of sufficient OTFTs. Metal-interrupted perylene analogues have been developed, in part, to take advantage of the ability to tune the electronic properties of these complexes by simply changing the metal center. Second, fluorescent molecules play an essential role in expansion of microscale sensor systems and OLEDs. Solvent dependent triple fluorescence has been discovered for a series of isobutylnaphthalimide derivatives, which is unique for naphthalimide materials which typically demonstrate dual fluorescence. Next, oxygen reduction electrocatalysts in fuel cells have hindered commercialization due to the high price of platinum. Here, polymer-containing palladium nanoparticles utilize the metal center embedded directly in the polymer backbone to serve as a seed point for metal nanoparticle growth. The palladium nanoparticles within the polymer matrix display significant catalytic activity towards oxygen reduction. Also, poly-9,9-dioctylfluorene is at the forefront of blue-light emitting materials for OLEDs due to high quantum efficiencies and good thermal stability; however, a low-energy green band emission contaminant in devices has hindered application. Oligofluorene synthesis to understand this phenomenon can be difficult thus a boronic acid protection has been implemented before Suzuki-Miyaura coupling occurs to reduce the number of byproducts produced and to accomplish synthesis of oligofluorenes such as a pentamer and heptamer. Lastly, while deviating from organic and inorganic/organic electronic materials, a discussion on the development of a mononuclear Rh(II) complexes, specifically a piano-stool conformation which assists in isolation of this species. The piano-stool ligand structure consists of alkyl chains for easy conformational adjustments when the Rh(I) metal center undergoes oxidation, bulky phosphine groups and an electron-donating arene ring to keep the Rh(II) metal center from dimerization. Most importantly, the research conducted has strived toward advancements over a broad range of scientific investigation. / text
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTEXAS/oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/ETD-UT-2010-08-1895 |
| Date | 20 October 2011 |
| Creators | Edelman, Kate Rose |
| Source Sets | University of Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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