Michael Stollenz
Kennesaw State University, GA·Chemistry
When metal atoms such as copper, silver and gold sit in a row very close together inside a molecule, the molecule can glow brightly. Its color and brightness depend on its exact shape.
- Fields
Chemistry
Materials Science
- Topics
inorganic chemistry
coordination chemistry
organometallic chemistry
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Synthesize a library of bis(amidine) ligands that can hold at least four copper(I) ions in a linear row, using mesitylcopper as a clean organometallic copper source.
- Prepare new dinuclear metalloligands by capping end nitrogen groups with copper, silver or gold fragments, and use them to assemble straight or bundled copper, copper/silver and copper/gold cluster arrays.
- Determine how straight versus bent (coil-like) arrangements of coinage metal ions change luminescence, using crystallography and spectroscopy to link structure to light emission.
More about the research
Such "molecular strings" could act as tiny wires, and bent versions as tiny coils, in electronic devices far smaller than today's chips. Glowing complexes of these coinage metals are also used in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), the light sources in many displays.
Why it matters
Understanding how shape controls light emission in multi-metal chains could guide the design of better luminescent materials for OLEDs. In the long run, coiled metal chains might serve as tiny electromagnets in nanoscale electronic devices, such as drug-delivering nanorobots whose path could be tracked by fluorescence imaging. The methods also add basic knowledge of how multi-metal complexes form and assemble.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Thomas Teets
University of Houston, TX·Chemistry
Increase the light-emission speed of blue-emitting platinum aryl acetylide complexes through a "secondary heavy-metal effect," attaching coinage metals or gold–carbon bonds to the molecule's periphery.
Benjamin Augenbraun
Williams College, MA·Physics
Measure the electronic, vibrational, rotational, and hyperfine (nuclear spin) structure of molecules pairing copper, silver, or gold with lead, using laser spectroscopy to see which wavelengths of light they absorb.
Virginia Montiel-Palma
Mississippi State University, MS·Chemistry·Early-career
Design heterobimetallic complexes combining a late transition metal with a group-13 metal that bind nitrogen-containing aromatic compounds and cleave their carbon–nitrogen bonds at low hydrogen pressure.
The school
Kennesaw State University: 6 labs on PI Pages, $52M a year on research, 82 research doctorates a year.
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