Studies of the properties of metallomesogens in magnetic and electrical fields are also underway as in the alignment of dimetal tetracarboxylates and metalloporphyrins. A pictorial representation of the parallel and perpendicular arrangements of quaduply bonded bimetallic complexes within a polymeric system are shown above. Chemical surface modification can be employed so that selectivity in deposition of a thin film can be achieved. This area of research is driven by its potential applications in the electronics industry and by the natural desire to understand the reaction pathways by which metalloorganic precursors are transformed to metals or ceramic materials during the process of low pressure chemical vapor deposition. One specific area of interest in the Woodward group includes the synthesis and characterization of new photocatalytic materials.
Photocatalytic materials use the energy of a photon of light to catalyze a chemical reaction.
One application is the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen, which can then be recombined in a fuel cell to produce electricity. Our goal is to obtain new photocatalytic materials capable of utilizing visible photons to drive the catalytic process. Such an advance would allow sunlight to replace UV lamps as the photon source, significantly lowering the cost and increasing the efficiency of the process.