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Research Interests

Materials Chemistry/Organic Chemistry/Physical Chemistry

The overall research goal is towards the structural design, synthesis and physical properties of the new organic materials with their applications on organic electronic/optoelectronic devices, chemosensors and biosensors.

Organic Electronic/Optoelectronic Materials

The structural design and synthesis of the monodisperse p-conjugated oligomers, dendrimers and novel polymers will be focused. Oligomers can serve as the model compounds for understanding the relationship of structure and properties of their corresponding polymers. Moreover, they can also be used as defect-free materials for organic devices. New homopolymers and copolymers with special functional groups will be developed to obtain high quantum yield and/or high charge carrier mobility. We are interested in their physical properties (including the electronic, electrochemical, thermal and photophysical properties) and their applications in organic electronics such as field effect transistors (FETs), solar cells and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

Liquid Crystalline Materials

We are also interested in the design, characterization and application of various liquid crystalline materials. Techniques such as X-ray diffraction, DSC, polarized optical microscope, and electronic microscopy etc. will be used to investigate their thermal behavior and solid-state stacking. As a special aim, we are interested in fabricating large-area monodomain alignment layer of the LC materials on certain substrates, which will be important for high performance FETs and polarized LEDs.

p-Conjugated Polyelectrolytes

Ionic π-conjugated polymers have attracted interests due to their interesting self-assembly properties and wide applications in chemosensors/biosenors and multi-layer LEDs. Our research goal is to design new polymeric structures with high luminescence quantum yields and to develop sensors with high selectivity and sensitivity on DNA, proteins and various ions.

Representative Publications

J. Luo, B. Zhao, J. Shao, K. A. Lim, H. S. O. Chan, C. Chi*, "Room-temperature Discotic Liquid Crystals Based on Oligothiophenes - Attached and Fused Triazatruxenes" J. Mater. Chem., 2009, in press.

J. Luo, H. Qu, J. Yin, X. Zhang, K.-W. Huang, C. Chi*, "p-Conjugated Oligothiophene-anthracene Co-oligomers: Synthesis, Physical Properties, and Self-assembly." J. Mater. Chem., 2009., in press.

J. Yin, H. Qu, K. Zhang, J. Luo, X. Zhang, C. Chi*, J. Wu*, "Electron-deficient Triphenylene and Trinaphthylene Carboximides" Org. Lett., 2009, 11, 3028-3031.

J. Yao, C. Chi, J. Wu*, K. P. Loh*, "Bisanthracene Bis(dicarboxylic imide)s as Soluble and Stable NIR Dyes" Chem. Eur. J., 2009, in press.

L. He*, S. André, V. M. Garamus, H.-C. Siebert, C. Chi, B. Niemeyer and H.-J. Gabius, "Small Angle Neutron Scattering as Sensitive Tool to Detect Ligand-dependent Shape Changes in a Plant Lectin with p-trefoil Folding and Their Dependence on the Nature of the Solvent." Glycoconjugate Journal, 2009, 26, 111-116.

C. Chi, A. Chworos, J. Zhang, A. Mikhailovsky and G. C. Bazan*, "Anatomy and Growth Characteristics of Conjugated Polyelectrolyte/DNA Aggregates." Adv. Funct. Mater. 2008, 18, 3606-3612. Inside Front Cover in issue 22, November 24, 2008.

G. Wegner*, S. Baluschev, F. Laquai, C. Chi, "Managing Photoexcited States in Conjugated Polymers" Macromol. Symp. 2008, 268, 1-8.

C. Chi, A. Mikhailovsky and G. C. Bazan*, "Design of Cationic Conjugated Polyelectrolytes for DNA Concentration Determination" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 11134-11145.

Chi, C.; Im, C.; Wegner, G. "Lifetime determination of fluorescence and phosphorescence of a series of Oligofluorenes", J. Chem. Phys., 2006, 124, 024907.

Somma, E.; Chi, C.; Loppinet, B.; Grinshtein J.; Graf, R.; Fytas, G.; Spiess, H. W.; Wegner, G. "Orientation Dynamics in Isotropic Phases of Model Oligofluorenes: Glass or Liquid crystal", J. Chem. Phys., 2006, 124, 204910.

E. Somma, B. Loppinet, C. Chi, G. Fytas, G. Wegner "Static and dynamic solution properties of monodisperse oligofluorenes" Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2006, 8, 2773-2778

Chi, C.; Wegner, G. "Chain-Length Dependence of the Electrochemical Properties of Conjugated Oligofluorenes", Macromol. Rapid Commun., 2005, 26, 1532-1537.

Chi, C.; Lieser, G.; Enkelmann, V.; Wegner, G. "Packing and Uniaxial Alignment of Liquid Crystalline Oligofluorenes", Macromol. Chem. Phys., 2005, 206, 1597-1609.

Chi, C.; Im, C.; Enkelmann, V.; Ziegler, A.; Lieser, G.; Wegner, G. "Monodisperse Oligofluorenes with Keto Defect as Models to Investigate the Origin of Green Emission From Polyfluorenes: Synthesis, Self-assembly, and Photophysical Properties", Chem. Eur. J., 2005, 11, 6833-6845.

Jo, J.; Chi, C.; Hoger, S.; Wegner, G.; Yoon, Do Y. "Synthesis and Characterization of Monodisperse Oligofluorenes", Chem. Eur. J. 2004, 10, 2681-2688.

Papadopoulous, P.; Floudas, G.; Chi, C.; Wegner, G. "Molecular dynamics of oligofluorenes: A dielectric spectroscopy investigation", J. Chem. Phys. 2004, 120, 2368

Chi, C.; Wu, J.; Wang, X.; Zhao, X.; Li, J.; Wang. F. "A New Solid-Supported Iterative Divergent/Convergent Strategy for the Synthesis of Dendrimers", Tetrahedron Letters 2001, 42, 2181-2184.

Chi, C.; Wu, J.; Wang, X.; Zhao, X.; Li, J.; Wang, F. "Redoxactive Phenylacetylene Monodendrons: Rapid Solid-Phase Synthesis and Their Electrochemical Properties", Macromolecules 2001, 34(12), 3812-3814.