Zhang group

Research

人类文明史实际上是一部材料发展史。化学研究的一大任务，就是设计、发现和制备各种材料。本课题组聚焦于分子材料基础研究，重点关注分子设计与组装、构效关系、性能调控和原型器件研究。研究内容包括：

（1）手性与极性分子材料

手性材料包含镜像无法与其自身重合的结构单元，在生物标记、手性分析和检测、对映体分离、手性光学、自旋电子学等领域的具有重要价值。我们特别关注手性分子材料的可控制备、性能优化和器件研究。

极性材料具有极性结构，即由于结构基元的正、负电中心不重合，存在净偶极，产生自发极化。我们特别关注其中的一个特殊类型，即铁电材料。其特征在于：电极化可以在外场下进行响应，从而表现出丰富的电、力、光、声、热等方面的性质。利用其出色的铁电、压电、热释电、非线性光学等功能，可广泛应用于信息存储、探测、成像、能量存储与转换等领域。

（2）动态响应分子材料

某些特殊结构的分子晶态材料，对外界激励（光、热、力、化学等）能够发生响应，包括结构相变、物理与化学性质的转变等。

我们关注的一类响应材料是晶态分子转子体系。其结构当中含有转子基元，能够发生静态-动态的转变，从而引起介电、荧光、晶体外形等性质的变化。对应于介电转变材料、荧光开关、驱动器。该研究可为开关型材料、响应材料提供新的素材，有助于相变材料、电介质化学、主客体化学、分子机器等相关研究领域的发展。

The history of human civilization is actually a history of materials' development. One of the great tasks of chemical research is to design, discover and prepare various materials. Our group are interested in basic research on molecular materials, focusing on molecular design and assembly, structure-property relationship understanding, performance optimization and prototype device development. The research includes:

(1) Chiral and polar molecular materials

Chiral materials contain structural units that are non-superimposable on their mirror images, and are of great values in the fields of biomarker, chiral analysis and detection, enantiomer separation, chiroptics, spintronics, etc. We are interested in controllable preparation, performance optimization and device development of chiral molecular materials.

Polar materials have polar structures, that is, because the positive and negative centers of structural units do not coincide, there is a net dipole, resulting in spontaneous polarization. We focus on one special type of polar materials, namely ferroelectric material. It is featured by the response of the polarization upon external electric field, which leads to a wealth of properties. The excellent functions of ferroelectricity, piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity, and nonlinear optics can be widely used in information storage, detection, imaging, energy storage and conversion, etc.

(2) Dynamic response molecular material

Molecular crystalline materials with special structures can respond to external stimuli (light, heat, force, chemistry, etc.), resulting in structural phase changes and property switchings.

One type of the response materials we are concerned about is the crystalline molecular rotors. Their structures consist of rotator components, which can undergo static-dynamic transition and arouse changes in dielectric, fluorescence, crystal shape and other properties, corresponding to dielectric transition materials, fluorescent switches, actuators and so on. This research can provide new materials for switchable and responsive materials, and contribute to the development of phase-change materials, dielectrics, host-guest chemistry, molecular machines and other related research fields.