CeNS Colloquium

Prof. Xinliang Feng, Technische Universität Dresden

In this lecture, we will present our recent efforts on the bottom-up synthetic approaches towards novel 2D conducting polymers and supramolecular polymers with structural control at the atomic/molecular-level or at the meso-scale. First, we will demonstrate the latest development on the synthetic 2D conjugated polymers including 2D Schiff-base type covalent polymers and 2D metal-dithienene/diamine coordination supramolecular polymers at the air-water or liquid-liquid interfaces. The resulting 2D conjugated polymers exhibit single-layer feature, good local structural ordering and with a size of cm2. The functional exploration of such 2D single-layer conjugated polymers for the electrical and mechanical properties, as well as serving as efficient electrocatalytic water splitting catalysts will be demonstrated. Second, we will introduce the self-assembly of a host-guest enhanced donor-acceptor interaction, consisting of a tris(methoxynaphthyl)-substituted truxene spacer, and a naphthalene diimide substituted with N-methyl viologenyl moieties as donor and acceptor monomers, respectively, in combination with cucurbit[8]uril as host monomer toward monolayers of an unprecedented 2D supramolecular polymers at liquid-liquid interface. Finally, we will present the supramolecular approaches to synergetic control the multi-component assembly, which results into 2D conducting polymers, such as polypyrrole and polyaniline nanosheets featuring 2D structures and with adjustable mesopores with/without on various functional free-standing surfaces. The unique structure with adjustable pore sizes (5–20 nm) and thickness (35–45 nm), enlarged specific surface area as well as high electrical conductivity make 2D conducting polymers promising for a number of applications.

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