Reports: UR1050797-UR10: Synthesis of Novel Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Derived from Benzotriphenylene
Kenneth E. Maly, Ph.D., Wilfrid Laurier University
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have
emerged as a class of organic semiconductors that have potential utility in
photovoltaic solar cells, field effect transistors, and light emitting
diodes.
Columnar liquid crystalline phases, where
disk-shaped molecules self-assemble into extended π-stacked arrays (Figure
1), are attractive targets for the design of new organic semiconductors.
More recently, we have developed the synthesis
of dibenzanthracenes bearing different substitution
patterns incorporating electron-withdrawing substituents to promote liquid
crystallinity.
Based on the results we have obtained, our
current efforts focus on the synthesis of related PAHs with an
electron-deficient aromatic core.
Over the past year, this grant has directly
supported two undergraduate students and one graduate student (partial support)
who have developed their skills in synthetic chemistry.
In summary, we have extended our synthetic
approach to dibenzanthracenes to a series of
compounds with alternate substitution patterns.