3:45–4:45 am
GCIS W301/W303 929 E. 57th Street
The physical properties of solids are inherently coupled to their structure and dimensionality. As such, the discovery of nascent physical phenomena and the realization of complex miniaturized devices in the solid state have incessantly relied upon the creation of stable low-dimensional crystals that approach the atomic limit. Towards this end, us in the Maxx Labare pioneering the discovery and chemical understanding of several classes of crystalline solid state materials comprising of sub-nanometer-thick inorganic chains that are held together by weak van der Waals (vdW) or ionic interactions. Such 1D and quasi-1D structures could be thought of as freestanding “edge states” or “all-inorganic polymers” and could bridge the underexplored chemical and physical knowledge gap that exists between atomically precise 2D and 0D solids. In this seminar, I will present our efforts in elucidating the distinct chemical interactions which govern the structure, dimensionality, assembly, and physical properties of crystals comprised of weakly-bound inorganic chains. My talk will focus on our advances in: (1) the discovery of a rare class of helical inorganic vdW solids and how compositional substitution in these modular phases could lead to a broad range of helical structures, emergent spin textures, accessible optical states, and highly sensitive stimulus-responsive behavior; and (2) the precision control of the bottom-up chemistry involved the inter-chain crystallization of optically- and electronically-active 1D and quasi-1D vdW crystals into dimensionally resolved nanostructures (chains, nanowires, quasi-2D nanosheets) that approach the sub-nanoscale regime. Through these thematic and convergent efforts, we define the synthetic and materials design rules that dictate directed synthesis, complex atomic scale ordering, and anisotropic physical properties of several emergent classes of 1D and quasi-1D vdW materials that are poised to become building blocks in next-generation quantum, energy, and sensing technologies.