CYMEIT · Cyanated macrocycles for electron and ion transport
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-09-01 → 2020-08-31
- EU contribution
- €183,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
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Results in brief
Cyanated macrocycles for electron and ion transport
Organic materials hold great promise for applications that require both electron and ion transport. This project explored, if the unique properties of cyclic organic molecules known as π-conjugated macrocycles can help to obtain electron and ion transporting materials with excellent performance. It aimed to bridge the gap between research on fundamental effects in organic materials and the development of ground-breaking applications. Battery electrodes are a potential application of such materials. Batteries can help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by storing clean electricity from renewable sources for periods with high demand and by making the electricity available for electric vehicles and other means of transport. However, there are severe environmental and ethical issues associated with the currently used heavy metal-based electrode materials. Organic materials, such as those developed during this project, can provide a more sustainable alternative. The overall objective of the project was to develop redox-active π-conjugated macrocycles for excellent electron and ion transporting materials and to apply these materials in devices. It can be concluded that such materials can indeed be obtained. The developed macrocycles showed outstanding performance in battery electrodes under fast‐charge/discharge conditions as well as extraordinarily stable cycling performance. The macrocyclic geometry of the molecules and the related properties were found to be highly beneficial for this application.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The aim of the proposed project is to develop redox-active macrocycles for excellent electron and ion transporting materials. Such mixed ionic-electronic conductors are important for various state-of-the-art applications, for example organic battery electrodes, electrochemical transistors, electrochromic devices, and light-emitting electrochemical cells. So far, macrocycles are considerably underexplored regarding these applications; important aspects such as straightforward synthesis and self-assembly are usually not taken into account. The proposed project is going to change this by introducing new molecular design concepts; thereby, the project is expected to yield macrocycles with excellent electron and ion transport properties and to attract significant attention to macrocycles regarding the above mentioned applications.Cyanated paracyclophanetetraenes and related compounds with different aromatic units are selected as the target materials. Such fully unsaturated shape-persistent macrocycles often feature desirable properties, due to their strain and low conformational flexibility. Regarding the aim of electron transport, it is particularly useful that the macrocyclic structure facilitates intermolecular contacts and charge transport. Regarding the aim of ion transport, the potential self-assembly of shape-persistent macrocycles into tubular superstructures is encouraging as such structures can provide channels for the transport of ions.The specific objectives of the project are (i) the development and optimization of syntheses towards cyanated paracyclophanetetraenes using model compounds, (ii) the preparation of these cyanated macrocycles and related compounds with different aromatic units, and (iii) the investigation of their redox and self-assembly properties as well as the demonstration of their excellent electron and ion transport properties in devices such as transistors and batteries.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE · LondonCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union