For over 8 years my students and I have been fascinated by how one can incorporate selenium and tellurium into p-delocalized molecules and polymers and how this in turn influences their properties. Much of our work has focused on the heterocycle tellurophene, which is the heaviest of the chalcogen heterocycles. Tellurophene chemistry had been virtually unknown, but through the course of our investigations we have learned how to synthesize p-delocalized molecules and polymers based on tellurophene. This has allowed us to identify several unexpected properties in these molecules including their ability to undergo facile halogen additional at the Te center and undergo subsequent halogen photoelimination with low energy light. This has lead us to conclude that these compounds are useful for photochemical halogen splitting and may be useful radical halogenation catalysts. Other work in my group has focused on the development of selenophene and tellurophene-based conjugated polymers. We have developed the controlled or ‘living’ synthesis of these challenging polyheterocycles and used this knowledge to develop polyheterocycles with complex architectures such as di- and tri-block copolymers and cyclic polymers. The block copolymers self-organize at the nanoscale by spontaneous phase-separation, which is largely driven by the differences in crystallinity within the blocks. When investigating the optoelectronic properties of these compounds, we find that they have a very narrow optical band-gap and a high charge-transport ability relative to the lighter heterocycle analogs. The polymers form the basis of the active semiconducting component in transistors and solar cells and often have high performance metrics. Finally, we have recently developed covalent frameworks based on selenophene and tellurophenes and discovered that their early oxidation potential makes them promising for energy storage applications. Selenophene and tellurophene chemistry, from synthesis to application, will be discussed. <br/>

<b>Award Address</b> (Harry Gray Award for Creative Work in Inorganic Chemistry by a Young Investigator sponsored by the Gray Award Endowment). Electronically delocalized molecules and polymers that contain selenium and tellurium

255th National Meeting (2018)

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Award Address (Harry Gray Award for Creative Work in Inorganic Chemistry by a Young Investigator sponsored by the Gray Award Endowment). Electronically delocalized molecules and polymers that contain selenium and tellurium