Frieder Jaekle
Rutgers University-Newark, NJ·Chemistry
Boron atoms have one fewer electron than carbon, so when boron is built into a carbon-based molecule it acts as an electron-pair acceptor. Pairing boron with nitrogen or phosphorus atoms that donate electrons creates a so-called Lewis pair, a bond that can change how a molecule absorbs light, conducts charge, or responds to heat and other triggers.
- Fields
Chemistry
Materials Science
- Topics
organoboron chemistry
boron-nitrogen Lewis pairs
B-N Lewis pairs
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jul 2029
What they work on
- Attach multiple boron-nitrogen Lewis pairs to acenes, flat molecules of fused carbon rings, and measure how extending the ring system changes their electronic structure and their absorption and emission of light.
- Explore the chemical reactivity of B-N Lewis pair-fused acenes in pursuit of thermoluminescent and mechanoluminescent materials, which glow when heated or mechanically stressed.
- Build polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons into macrocycles, large ring-shaped molecules, that combine light emission with stimuli-triggered uptake and release of guest molecules.
- Attach Lewis-basic chromophores, light-absorbing molecules with electron-donating groups, to boron-containing polymers using 'click'-like chemistry to create light-active polymers and supramolecular polymer networks with reversible crosslinks.
- Study polymers carrying sterically hindered 'frustrated' Lewis pairs, whose acid and base groups are too crowded to bond with each other, for activating small molecules.
More about the research
Organic molecules with networks of shared electrons (π-conjugated materials) are already used as semiconductors in electronics, sensors and imaging. Both of the lab's projects ask how adding boron Lewis pairs can give these molecules and polymers new optical, electronic and 'smart' responsive behaviors.
Why it matters
Boron-doped organic semiconductors and light-emitting polymers could find use in display technologies, bioimaging, and chemical sensors. Materials that absorb and emit near-infrared light, glow under heat or pressure, or release guest molecules on demand could support new sensing and responsive devices. Because the boron bonds are reversible, the polymers could also be recycled, which may reduce plastic waste.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
T Don Tilley
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Chemistry
Develop high-yield [2+2+n] cycloaddition reactions that add several fused aromatic rings in one step, giving scalable access to large, tailored polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
Christopher Graves
Swarthmore College, PA·Chemistry
Synthesize group 13 metal complexes (boron, aluminum, gallium, indium) of tripodal nitroxide ligands, (RTriNOx3–)M, with systematically varied electron-donating and electron-withdrawing substituents.
Brent Sumerlin
University of Florida, FL·Chemistry
Develop pendant squarate esters as a new catalyst-free bond-exchange chemistry for vitrimers, reshapable crosslinked polymers that flow when heated.
The school
Rutgers University-Newark: 3 labs on PI Pages, $26M a year on research, 80 research doctorates a year.
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