Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses and Dissertations

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    DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF POLYOLEFIN MATERIALS FOR NANOSTRUCTURED SELF-ASSEMBLY: BUILDING BLOCKS, COPOLYMERS, AND POLYMER CONJUGATES
    (2022) Wentz, Charlotte Maria; Sita, Lawrence R; Chemistry; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Polyolefin based materials are essential to today’s society in both simplistic commodity plastics to complex nanostructured materials and optoelectronic devices. In order to better understand these materials and make new impactful innovations, there is a barrier of fabrication, scalability, versatility, and programmability. The answer to the world’s plastic waste problem lies not in removing our use of polymers but relies in better understanding their properties, utilizing them as building blocks in advanced materials, and creating a long-lasting advanced material. Towards the goal of overcoming limitations in fabrication and scalability the work herein presents on utilizing a toolbox of living polymerization techniques such as living chain transfer polymerization (LCCTP) where new functionalities, stereochemical microstructures, optical properties, and physical properties of the polyolefin can be designed and systematically controlled. The polyolefins made through these techniques are scalable and versatile with end-group functionalization creating a seemingly endless choice of polymer building blocks and polymer materials. In line with creating new technologies that are programable the polyolefin building blocks made herein are utilized in multiple conjugates to create and understand methods and mechanisms of solid-state nanostructured self-assembly and access rare nonclassical phases that are highly desirable for their properties and uses in a plethora of applications. The conjugates investigated involve either a sugar-based head group covalently bond to a polymer tail to access rare and misunderstood Frank Kasper phase order-order transitions, or a perylene chromophore core covalently bond on both sides of the core in a linear fashion to polymer domains to create highly florescent or optically active materials that are useful in organic technologies such as solar cells, light emitting diodes, or nanotechnology. These perylene based conjugates can self-assemble into unique columnar phases and single gyroid phase. These results with conjugates provide methods for reliable and programmable access to rich phase behavior through the design of the polyolefin domains.
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    Discrete and Polymeric Complexes Comprising Bis-nor-seco-CB[10] and Oligoammonium Ions
    (2009) Nally, Regan; Isaacs, Lyle; Chemistry; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    ABSTRACT Title of Document: DISCRETE AND POLYMERIC COMPLEXES COMPRISING BIS-NOR-SECO-CB[10] AND OLIGOAMMONIUM IONS Regan C. Nally, Ph.D., 2009 Directed By: Professor Lyle D. Isaacs Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Supramolecular architectures composed of multiple components are challenging to produce, as the enthalpic gain must be greater than the entropic penalty of strict geometrical arrangements. Therefore, it is the goal of supramolecular chemists to strategically design and synthesize molecules that will exhibit selectivity toward formation of a particular complex. This dissertation describes the formation of supramolecular architectures of increasing size and is organized in the following way. Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the field of supramolecular polymer chemistry. Chapter 2 describes the synthesis of a series of monovalent ditopic guests (II-1 - II-6) and their complexation properties toward double cavity cucurbituril host bis-ns-CB[10]. We observed the preferential formation of 1:1, 2:2, and oligomeric complexes rather than the desired n:n supramolecular polymers. Guest II-7 which contains a longer biphenyl spacer successfully precludes the formation of the 1:1 complex but results in the formation of the 2:2 complex (bis-ns-CB[10]2*II-72) rather than supramolecular polymer. Guest II-8 is heterovalent and ditopic and is shown to reversibly form 2:2 and 1:2 complexes (bis-ns-CB[10]2*II-82 and bis-ns-CB[10]*II-82) in response to changes in host:guest stoichiometry. Lastly, this equilibrium can be manipulated by the addition of exogenous CB[6] which selectively targets the hexanediammonium ion binding region of II-8 and delivers the penta-molecular complex bis-ns-CB[10]*II-82*CB[6]2. Chapter 3 describes the formation of a main chain supramolecular polymer from a mixture of poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (III-1) and bis-ns-CB[10]. The bis-ns-CB[10] molecular container behaves as a molecular handcuff, bringing together two ends of individual polymers to form III-1n* bis-ns-CB[10]m, resulting in an extension of the length of polymer. The effect of bis-ns-CB[10] on the physical properties of the polymer was investigated using viscometry in aqueous solution. A decrease in the ηrel was observed upon increasing concentrations of bis-ns-CB[10] to a solution of III-1. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), and diffusion-ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) were performed to probe the mode of interaction between polymer III-1 and bis-ns-CB[10]. Collectively, the data supports the two roles for bis-ns-CB[10]: 1) as a deaggregation agent, and 2) as a molecular handcuff that non-covalently links individual polymer strands resulting in overall extension of the polymer.