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Synthesis of new allotropes of carbon: Cyclocarbon catenanes

Project description

Round and round she goes: supramolecular chemistry and novel cyclocarbons

Carbon has long been a favourite among biologists and synthetic chemists since it plays a starring role in organic molecules of relevance to medicine, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and more. Over the last several decades, with the discovery of all sorts of interesting carbon compounds exhibiting exotic properties, this element has found its place in optoelectronics and nanotechnologies as well. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the CycloCarbonCatenane project is pushing the frontiers of carbon chemistry. The team is planning to develop new cyclic macromolecules made entirely of carbon and study their electronic properties with advanced techniques to characterise their reactivities and physical properties.

Objective

The last 35 years have seen many advances in the field of new carbon allotropes, from fullerene chemistry to carbon nanotubes and graphene. Inspired by the huge impact of these new forms of carbon, we aim to create new carbon allotropes through the synthesis of cyclic molecules, cyclocarbons composed of only sp-hybridized carbon atoms, which are stabilized by the encapsulation of several macrocycles to form catenanes. The proposed project combines recent advances in polyyne chemistry (the field of the applicant's PhD) with supramolecular chemistry to create and study novel compounds: cyclocarbon catenanes. This project will include extensive synthetic work to find the most efficient working scheme for the formation of a stable cyclo[40]carbon catenane with suitable macrocycles. Dicobalt complexes will be incorporated into the polyyne precursors to form masked alkyne equivalents (MAEs). Active metal template (AMT) cross-coupling and/or homo-coupling reactions will be applied with MAEs to synthesize polyyne rotaxanes with suitable macrocycles on the polyyne thread. Cyclo-oligomerization using another AMT coupling, under high dilutions, is expected to yield a cyclo-tetramer, which can be unmasked to afford the target C40 catenane. The electronic nature of the target compounds will be studied using a range of techniques, including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, UV-vis absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy, electrochemistry, as well as time-resolved IR and Raman studies, additionally characterized with X-ray crystallography in the solid-state. These efforts will focus on exploring structure, reactivity, and physical properties of cyclocarbon molecules, to determine experimentally whether they are acetylenic or cumulenic in their ground states and excited states.

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

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Coordinator

THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 224 933,76
Address
WELLINGTON SQUARE UNIVERSITY OFFICES
OX1 2JD Oxford
United Kingdom

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Region
South East (England) Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Oxfordshire
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 224 933,76
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