Investigating the effect of pH and functionalisation upon the self-assembly of NDIs

Stimuli responsive naphthalene diimides (NDIs) have promising potential in devices such as smart windows. NDIs can be easily and reversibly reduced to a highly coloured radical anion or dianion from a transparent or transmissive state. We believe that these systems are particularly sensitive to small changes, for example differing the functionality of the NDI or altering pH. We hypothesise that there is a related change in aggregation and self-assembly of the molecules when these factors are altered. Better understanding of this could be used to tailor colour and suitability to application. The ultimate aim of the project is to link properties such as aggregation and structure to desirable properties that we can measure experimentally such as colouration, reversibility, longevity of colour etc. Our materials are ill-suited to investigation with techniques other than neutron scattering.

刺激响应型萘二酰亚胺（naphthalene diimides, NDI）在智能窗户等器件中具备可观的应用潜力。NDI可从透明或高透光状态被轻松可逆地还原为显色极强的自由基阴离子或二价阴离子。我们认为该类体系对微小变化尤为敏感，例如改变NDI的官能化修饰或调节pH值。我们推测，当上述参数发生改变时，分子的聚集与自组装行为会产生相应变化。对该过程的深入理解可用于精准调控材料的颜色与应用适配性。本项目的最终目标是将聚集行为、分子结构等属性，与我们可通过实验测得的显色性、可逆性、色彩耐久性等目标属性建立关联。我们的材料仅适用于中子散射（neutron scattering）技术的表征分析，其他技术均难以对其开展有效研究。