This lecture will focus on our group's development of polymers modified by inorganic elements. In the first portion of the lecture, I will describe a new class of polyacetylene bearing redox-active boron-, nitrogen-, and phosphorus-based groups. Hallmarks of these materials include: enhanced air-stability of the resulting polymers in comparison to parent polyacetylene, narrow optical band gaps, and notable redox-triggered optical switching in the telecommunications region (1500 nm).[1] Building upon our prior work concerning the mild deposition of semiconducting materials (e.g., Si and InP) from molecular precursors,[2] I will also mention the use of Ge-polymers to deposit crystalline germanium in ordered patterns via photolithography at room temperature. This last advance represents a viable deposition strategy for nanoelectronics.[3]
[1] B. T. Luppi, A. V. Muralidharan, N. Ostermann, I. T. Cheong, M. J. Ferguson, I. Siewert, E. Rivard, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2022, 61, e202114586.
[2] a) A. A. Omaña, R. K. Green, E. Rivard et al., Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 228; b) B. L. Frenette, J. Trach, M. J. Ferguson, E. Rivard, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2023, 62, e202218587.
[3] Medroa del Pino, W.; Forero Pico, A. A.; Gupta, M.; Rivard, E. Chem. Commun. 2023, 59, 6849.
Biography:
Prof. Eric Rivard completed his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Professor Ian Manners in 2004. After NSERC sponsored postdoctoral work with Professors Jonas Peters (Caltech) and Philip Power (University of California, Davis), and a brief research stay with Professor Cameron Jones (Monash University), he joined the University of Alberta in 2008 where he is now a Full Professor. He has given over 200 invited lectures worldwide and was an Alexander von Humboldt Experienced Researcher Fellow in Germany (2017-2019). He was also a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Long-term Visitation Fellow in 2015 and a JSPS Short-Term Visitation Fellow in 2023, an RCMS Visiting Professor at Nagoya University in 2016, was the inaugural 2016 Michael Lappert Lecturer (Royal Society of Chemistry, UK), and won the 2018 Strem Chemicals Award for Pure and Applied Inorganic Chemistry (Canadian Society for Chemistry). He is an Associate Editor for the journals Aggregate (Wiley) and Dalton Transactions (RSC) and he is currently on the Editorial Advisory Boards for Chemical Society Reviews and Inorganic Chemistry. The Rivard group studies fundamental low-coordinate and main group hydride chemistry, catalysis, semiconducting nanomaterial synthesis, and the development of phosphorescent materials and conjugated polymers based on main group elements.