RUI: Chiral Light Emitting Eutectogels

In this project, Professor Todd Hopkins of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Butler University is developing flexible chiral light emitting materials based on eutectogels, chiral deep eutectic solvents, and luminescent lanthanides. This research exploits the design versatility of deep eutectic solvents to create brighter and flexible materials that can be used in circularly polarized organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), circularly polarized displays, or security labels. The project relies on the development of a machine learning model to predict deep eutectic solvent properties. This project engages undergraduate students in research at the interface of physical, inorganic, and materials chemistry. The scientific training that results from this project extends to students enrolled in a physical chemistry laboratory course. Deep eutectic solvents (DES) are formed by mixing two or more components to make a new liquid that has controllable properties. Specifically, this project will utilize three component mixtures to enhance the induced circularly polarized luminescence of luminescent lanthanide complexes. The combination of terbium, and europium in two oxidation states can provide red, green and blue circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). The resulting chiral light emitting DES will be combined with polymers or gel-forming molecules to create chiral light emitting eutectogels. In order to achieve this objective, the research project will 1) discover new three-component chiral DES using screening and machine learning, 2) characterize how well these DES induce CPL from lanthanide complexes, 3) use computational simulations and electronic structure calculations to understand the mechanism of the induced CPL, and 4) characterize how the physicochemical properties of the chiral DES determine the formation and properties of the chiral eutectogels. Successful chiral light emitting eutectogels will be incorporated into OLEDs to determine their suitability as flexible circularly polarized emitting materials. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.