SOMO-HOMO Inversion For chiral open-shell pi-conjUgated systeMs

Introduction

Organic Materials are of strong interest for increasing the performances of modern electronic devices (OLED, photovoltaics, transistor) while reducing their overall cost in comparison to classically used rare and precious metals and semi-conductors.

Chiral Molecules and Their Properties

In this domain, chiral pi-conjugated molecules have recently opened new directions due to their specific interaction with circularly polarized (CP) light and their unique electron spin filtering ability, known as the Chiral Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS) effect. Related to the molecular magnetic moment, these properties have been only investigated for closed-shell chiral systems with weak magnetic properties, which currently limits the potential of chiral molecules as spin-filter organic materials.

Future Directions

Designing open-shell chiral organic materials with high magnetic properties, such as in organic high-spin diradicals, appears to be a promising direction for the future breakthrough of optoelectronics by controlling both electronic and spin properties.

Challenges in Synthesis

However, synthesizing organic chiral diradicals remains a considerable scientific challenge due to their high chemical reactivity and the difficult control of their magnetic properties. Accordingly, the molecular combination of chirality and diradical state remains relatively unexplored, fundamentally poorly understood, and unknown for chiral photonic and magnetic applications.

Project Goals

In this project, I will design unprecedented stable organic chiral di- and polyradicals where the singly occupied molecular orbitals (SOMO) will be energetically below the HOMO level. This energetic SOMO-HOMO Inversion (SHI) will represent a disruptive approach to stabilize chiral polyradicals and to design chiral high-spin systems, a major breakthrough in Material Science.

Expected Outcomes

Such an innovative union of spin and chirality will give me the opportunity to develop CP-OLED with 100% theoretical efficiency and unprecedented near-infrared CP-light-responsive spin-filtering devices for data processing and storage.